Dolly Parton
The Essential Dolly Parton Volume 1 – I Will Always Love You (RCA 66533)

Dolly Parton is one of the major artists of the last 25 years that hasn't been appropriately anthologized, but RCA's two Essential Dolly Parton volumes come closer than anything currently available. Oddly, Volume 1 chronicles primarily the pop years (1978-1984), while Volume 2 documents the classic country years (1971-1977).

I can't exactly see why they did it that way, and Volume 2 is by far the better disc, but it only makes owning Volume 1 all the more necessary, as my OCD won't allow for a Volume 2 to be in my CD collection unless the requisite Volume 1 sits beside it.

Actually, they're both worth having, but it would be nice to see a solid chronological 2-disc set in the vein of Sony/Legacy's recent Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash anthologies.

Dolly certainly deserves it – one of country music's most original voices, and one of the two or three most wholly likable performers in entertainment history (Suzanne Somers would be another, and then, I'm not sure, maybe Ron Howard). Dolly brings a certain homespun charm to whatever she sings, and although many of the songs on I Will Always Love You are painfully 80s, she elevates them, well, most of them, at least.

Not surprisingly to any Dolly fan, the best material by far on this disc is the stuff that she wrote and produced herself – you can immediately tell without looking at the liner notes when a song is true Dolly and when it's the record label looking for a hit. Every time I listen to this CD, I'm alternately cringing and beaming, and whenever I beam, I look at the booklet and sure enough, it's a Dolly song.

Some of the songs are well-known to even pop audiences ("9 to 5," "I Will Always Love You," "Islands in the Stream," and "Real Love"), her big crossover hits, and good hits they were. "9 to 5" may ultimately make more sense as a karaoke song for work-acquaintances getting silly on Friday at Friday's (say, when did Friday's start having karaoke?), but for any connoisseur of pop songwriting or arranging there are many further layers to discover – one time I terrorized a car full of Loud Bassoon staffers by maniacally playing the first minute of the song over and over for about 45 minutes, listening to the meticulously-written typewriter part.

"I Will Always Love You" is featured here in the second of three versions Dolly has recorded – the first being the original (good) one, this one being the remake done for "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," the third being a duet with Vince Gill done in the 90s. This one is alright, but shamelessly overproduced.

Still, Dolly always shines. "Islands in the Stream," a duet with Kenny Rogers, makes much more sense when you figure out it was written by the Bee Gees &3150; suddenly it becomes amazing rather than stupid and overplayed. I must admit, that one was a serious favorite on my 1983 hit parade, too. "Real Love," from 1984, has some very egregious 1984 synths, but it's not a hideous song at all.

But as I said before, Dolly's own material saves the disc from being unlistenable 80s claptrap. "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" is the freshest breath of fresh air on the disc, a warm, traditional "Opry"-style song that even features a bullfrog bass singer a la the Oak Ridge Boys. Wonderful song.

"To Daddy" (from 1976) is a brilliant example of Dolly's powerful songwriting and singing – the reasons that Dolly matters beyond all the tit jokes she's endured for the last few decades. Quite a weeper, this one. "Tennesse Homesick Blues" suffers a bit from that rocky "honky tonk" sound that plagues much of 80s and 9's country, but the melody is great, and Dolly yodels – never a bad thing.

"Two Doors Down," similarly," suffers from overproduction, but again, is a good song. "God Won't Get You" is one of the weirdest cheatin' songs ever, not only because the chorus is about two minutes long, but for its stern moral message: one of the few guilt-ridden country cheatin' songs I've encountered.

Far too much of this disc is skip-over material after one or two listens, but at least half of it is fun to revisit fairly frequently. The few great moments make it worthwhile, especially as a companion to Volume 2, which amply documents Dolly's greatness. This volume doesn't do that so much as demonstrate how homogenized country music grew in the 80s, almost stifling even a voice as vivacious and irrepressible as Dolly's.

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Review by Clean Mr. Gene