Customer Reviews

Porter & Dolly

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"Porter and Dolly" marks the very first CD release of an original album by Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton in North America. Their very first LP "Just Between You and Me" was released in 1995 in Europe on CD and there have been various compilation CD's distributed, but RCA Records has been extremely slow in releasing any of the duos famous albums. Minnie Pearl once called Porter and Dolly the greatest man/woman singing team in the history of country music. This CD shows why!
"Porter and Dolly" has quite a history as an LP. It was the last album the duo ever released in 1980 long after their partnership was over. It was originally to have been put out in 1976, but Dolly's new management team headed by Sandy Gallin convinced RCA to shelve the duet album, citing that its release would hamper the growth of Dolly's new solo career. This didn't sit too well with Porter who would go on to lose royalties as a singer, songwriter, and producer of the album. In 1979 Porter sued Dolly for 3 million dollars citing breach of contract and of blocking the release of this very album. After settling out of court for 1 million dollars, in which Dolly nearly ended up broke, the "Porter and Dolly" album was released. The album shot all the way to number 9 and had 2 singles released; "Making Plans" hit number 2 and "If You Go I'll Follow You" went to number 12, indicating the fans still loved their Porter and Dolly. The album is quite good. Featuring 10 tracks the standout is the second single. Dolly's girlish voice blends perfectly with Porter's manly vocals and the song should have gone higher on the charts. All the songs were recorded prior to 1976 and the only song released before 1980 was "If You Say I Can", released as the B-Side to "Is Forever Longer Than Always" another top 10 single not included on the album release.
The album cover also features both Porter and Dolly photographed by 2 different photographers and their images were spliced together, since at that time the two were not talking. Happily they would rekindle their friendship in 1988. In my opinion all their albums were excellent and this ranks as one of their finest, and the fact that it finally has a home on CD makes me long to see more old Porter and Dolly LP's re-released on CD. On a final note the duos 1969 LP "Always, Always" and 1971's "Two of a Kind" will be released in February 2008 together on 1 CD. Look for that.

It was a welcome surprise to find this album from 1980 being released on CD. When you look at the catelog of Porter & Dolly material this is probably not the best album to represent the duo. It is significant as this was to be the last album to be release by this amazing duo. Although this is not the strongest of the duo's material it is still very good and does make you want to hear the albums that came before. Dolly's voice is in excellent shape hear but Porter seems to be struggling to keep up with her as it seems he tried to produce this album to keep up with the times. He just seems to be out of place on many of the songs. He does sound good on both "Making Plans" and "Singing on the Mountain". The rest of the material sounds as though he is playing second fiddle to Dolly. Dolly wrote the majority of songs on this CD and as always her songs are very well written, although clearly her best written songs during this time were saved for her solo projects and this album does suffer a bit from not having the best material possible. All in all I would still recommend this CD. Event though it is not as great as some of their older material it is still very good, and is a good display of country harmony.

The history of this album has been told many times before, it was blocked, it was shelved, when it was finally released in 1980 it stood out as somewhat of an oddity among Dolly's other albums at the time. She had just released a string of pop crossover albums and "Porter & Dolly" recalled her sound that she had left behind five years previously. The album isn't bad at all, but at the time of it's release it had a dated sound just because Dolly had changed her overall sound so much. Listening to the album again 29 years later, it holds up well and fits in nicely with the other Porter and Dolly albums.
My only complaint about this album is the inclusion of the Johnny Russell song, "Making Plans" which has always sounded weird as a duet. In the song both parties are saying how they can't believe the other is leaving and how hard it will be go on without each other. Well, if you both feel this way, why are you "making plans to leave"??? Great song, just doesn't work as a duet. Johnny Russell's original recording is a much better version.
Very slowly Dolly's back catalog is getting released on CD, something that is long overdue, as is a comprehensive boxed set covering her RCA years.

This lady will never let you down when singing. This was a great team & this one is a real joy to listen to over and over.

I've been reading some others opinions on this disc......some say it's a very weak,final release from Porter&Dolly....a forced legal release...which the legal part is somewhat true.
I'm just happy this CD is available.It has the rich and lavish Nashville sounds from 1980..with vocals from the mid 1970's.... sounds like the music was put in "after" the vocals(I'm still trying to confiirm that as fact.....but I'm pretty sure it's true)...as was the picture on the cover(Seperate photos sliced to look as though they were still together).But Nontheless....we still have Porter&Dolly!!!.....there are so many subtle hints as to how great they could've been through the '80's and beyond.This almost sounds that "Rockin' Years" w/Ricky Van Shelton should be here......sung by Porter......wouldn't that be Grand???This CD sounds good....really good.....and should not be missed.Great music...and the price.....well.....it's a steal.Don't Hesitate.Buy Now!!!!So,in a nutshell, these are country duets at their very best.............AWESOME!!!!!BUY NOW!!!

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton recorded many excellent albums, but this one is my favorite among them, albeit only marginally. Exactly when the album was recorded, I'm not sure although it would have been in the mid-seventies. The album was not released at the time due to the break-up of the business partnership that the duo had established, but was eventually released in 1980. So much had changed in country music during the intervening years that it already sounded out of place among all the other new releases that year, especially Dolly`s solo album. Those of us who bought it knew that there wasn`t likely to be another new Porter and Dolly album. Although there was eventually some talk of them getting together again, nothing came of it.

The album opens with a cover of Making plans, a song that dates back to the fifties, but the version here made number two on the country charts and the record that kept it off the number one spot was Dolly's solo cover of Old flames can't hold a handle to you, a song that Joe Sun had taken into the top twenty of the country charts just two years earlier. (That track is from Dolly's solo album released the same year, but ironically, it seems out of place and would be more at home here.)

The next track, If you go I'll follow you, was the only other single taken from the album and made number twelve on the country charts. Great as these songs are, they don't stand out from the others as the quality is sustained throughout. Even the song about an ill-fated child (Little David's harp) is fine by me. I'm not a huge fan of these songs that feature on many of Porter and Dolly's duet albums, but this is one of the better ones.

For the rest, brilliant upbeat songs such as Beneath the sweet magnolia tree, Daddy did his best and Singing on the mountain contrast nicely with slower sons such as Hide me away, Someone just like you, Touching memories and If you say I can. I learned long ago that Dolly's duet albums with Porter were well up to the standard of Dolly's solo music and nothing has changed my mind on that. Porter's warm baritone voice neatly complements Dolly's soprano, as this album clearly shows. If you enjoy Dolly's traditional country recordings, you'll love this album.

I do believe that Dolly and Porter are the best country duo ever. I think they are great together. I love this album in fact I love all their albums.

This was Porter and Dolly's last CD together. What an excellent duo!!!! All songs are outstanding. On this CD, they have never sounded better. Definitely buy this CD. You won't regret it.