Customer Reviews

Very Best of

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4 star:		(3)
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Dolly is the greatest country singer ever! This CD contains her very best and coupled with the second volume (The Very Best Of Dolly Parton Volume 2) you have a fantastic collection of wonderful music. By all means, go ahead and buy them both (like I did)! You will not regret this purchase. Enjoy!

To coincide with Dolly's European tour of 2007, there were several CD releases including yet another best of compilation (this album) and three twofers featuring six albums, five of which had never been released on CD while the other had only briefly been available in the early days of CD. Three of Dolly's older albums were also released with bonus tracks although only the bonus tracks were new to CD, the main albums having already been made available on earlier releases. Despite the fact that all the tracks here have been released many times before, this compilation was hugely successful. There are still plenty of people out there who don't own any of Dolly's music and this CD provides such people with most of the tracks that they're likely to be familiar with.

Dolly's two British top ten hits (Jolene, Islands in the stream) are both here, along with the Dolly song made even more famous by Whitney Houston (I will always love you) and Dolly's major American pop hits (9 to 5, Here you come again). Another song that Brits might recognize even if they don't normally listen to Dolly's music is the theme to the old TV series Butterflies (Love is like a butterfly), although Dolly`s own version wasn`t actually used for the theme - Clare Torrey recorded a cover of it for the purpose. Dolly's cover of an old Drifters classic (Save the last dance for me) is often included on compilations of her music, as it is here, because it was successful in the American country charts, but it sounds even further removed from country music than the original.

As if these familiar songs were not enough, there are other songs here that were important to Dolly's early career and popularity including Bargain store, My Tennessee mountain home and Coat of many colors, any or all of which may be familiar to people far beyond Dolly's fan base. The compilation is certainly varied, featuring disco-styled songs (Baby I'm burning, Potential new boyfriend) and hillbilly songs (Applejack, Tennessee homesick blues). You could say there's something for everybody, but unless you have broad musical tastes, there are likely to be some tracks you don't like. Dolly has recorded many different types of music over her 40+ years in the music business, so compilations of her music inevitably reflect that unless they focus on specific periods of her career.

If you haven't got any of Dolly's music and you're looking for the obvious oldies with some of the best of the rest, this is a good one to choose. If you enjoy it enough to want more, there's also a volume 2.

Well, all I can say is AVERAGE... I am amazed at how deep we can pull songs from her catalog to make a fast buck for a compilation, but we still have yet to see "Heartbreak Express" 1982 or "The Great Pretender" 1984 both on RCA to be released onto c.d. WHY ARE WE STILL WAITING???

There are a few great gems on this particular collection that the avid fan will go for, and the price is fair. However, there are over 20 compilations on the market, and I'm being kind by leaving it at 20... Do we really need another compilation? Or even worse... Do we need to keep putting on c.d. 9 To 5 and Odd Jobs???

I think someone needs to step up to the plate and give Dolly and the fans her complete catalog on c.d. and stop putting out meaningless compilations with newer photos, and release Heartbreak Express & The Great Pretender!!! It would also make the music industry look like they know what they are doing for the first time in MANY years...

I BOUGHT THIS CD FOR MY PARTNER FOR EASTER AND ALL THE SONGS THAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE HERE ARE ALL HERE AND THEN SOME. EXCELLENT CD!!!!!

Great CD - a pleasure to listen to. It's truly the best of Dolly Parton.

Several of her hits are combined with songs she sings at the Dollywood Theme Park. She said that these were written by her relatives. I like the ballads as well as those with other singers; Islands in the Stream (Kenny Rogers), Everything's Beautiful (Willie Nelson), Silver Threads and Golden Needles (Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn), To Know Him is to Love Him (Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris), Romeo (Billy Ray Cyrus, Tanya Tucker, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattca, Pam Tillis).

Great cd. I think the songs on this grouping are some of Dolly's best. I bought it to enjoy Dolly and her familiar tunes when I'm in the mood for listening to her. I wasn't disappointed.

Dolly has a classic country voice and all her music is real country. By that I mean the combination of her voice, the music and lyrics, and the fact that real country music always has a guitar, a fiddle, and a steel guitar. The rest is what I call country/pop. Every song on this album is terrific. I met her on a flight from Nashville to Atlanta years ago and we had a nice conversation. She is a true icon of country music and this CD is the best!

Of Course it is Dolly so how could it be bad? Quick delivery and sounds great.

I found this CD very enjoyable. It brought back a lot of warm childhood memories. No one sings quite like Dolly. There were a few songs I was unfamiliar with, but all in all I loved the CD as did my child. We were both toe tapping and trying to sing along.