Most of Dolly Parton's RCA catalog of hits has long been available and in a mind boggling variety of combinations. A lot of these collections are of the nine and ten track assortment that RCA was notorious for thrusting upon the public. Before the Essential series came along, the best Parton retrospective was 1993's two-disc, thirty track The RCA Years (1967-86). The RCA Years skimped on Parton's second decade with RCA and that may be why they choose to put out her later hits as the first Essential Parton volume. The Essential Dolly Parton, Volume 2 captures all of the early hits that deservedly made Parton a country MUSIC legend such as "Jolene," "Coat Of Many Colors" and "I Will Always Love You." Some of them, like her first number one, the rousing "Joshua" and the reflective "We Used To" had been left off previous Parton CD sets (until now). With a pair of moving gospel performances, "The Seeker" and "Wings Of A Dove," to end the disc, country fans finally have a truly special Parton set.

The Essential Series celebrates an artist's biggest hits. Since Dolly has so many hits, this is Volume II. While Volume I was like any other Dolly greatest hits collection, filled with the pop gems and crossover hits, this one concentrates on her country roots and country hits from her lenghtly career. Everything from The Bargain Store to Light of a Clear Blue Morning, Touch Your Woman to Me & Little Andy, Coat of Many Colors to My Tennessee Mountain Home, Joshua to Heartbreaker, and so much more, many of her hits are covered here. This is probably one of her more complete collections, so if you are tired of the collections that only feature her pop hits, this is your cd. Might I reccomend Legendary, a 3 cd set that has 50 of her biggest hits, probably the closest we will get to a complete Dolly collection for now.

It is kind of odd that Volume 2 of the "Essential Dolly Parton" series contains her earlier, more compelling work, while Volume 1 focus more on her later Hollywood/pop sellout. As a result, Volume 2 contains more 'essential' music than the first.

And yet it still is not quite enough. Still missing from any CD collection such breathtaking early songs like "Down From Dover," "In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)," "Gypsy Joe and Me," "Just The Way I Am," "My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy," and many others.

Still we get "Coat of Many Colors," "Jolene," "My Tennessee Mountain Home," "Mule Skinner Blues" and some others. It is towards the end of this cd, when the slick pop of "Here You Come Again," and others kick in that one wants to write angry letters to RCA/BMG and ask why they continue to treat the earlier back catalog of Parton so poorly.

Maybe one day we will get the aforementioned songs on a cd issue. Until then get "The Essential Dolly Parton Volume 2" and boycott Volume One. Maybe then RCA/BMG will get the message!

The first volume of Essential Dolly Parton focuses on her eighties hits (including her 1982 re-recording of I will always love you) and also includes Two doors down, so it's not here. Yet another volume, The essential Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, covers their duets, so none of them are here.

This second volume of her solo recordings includes some of her most successful recordings from the sixties and seventies, including her original 1973 recording of I will always love you.

All the other classic country songs from the mid-seventies are here - Jolene, Love is like a butterfly, The bargain store, The seeker, My tennessee mountain home - together with her first solo top 20 hit (Just because I'm a woman), her first big hit (Mule skinner blues, a cover of the Jimmie Rodgers classic) and her first #1 record (Joshua).

Coat of many colors, also included here, was based on a real incident. Dolly was once sent to school wearing a coat made of differently-colored rags woven together and all the other children (not surprisingly) laughed at her. A picture of her in that coat featured on the original LP cover.

Other great country recordings here include Touch your woman, We used to, All I can do and Wings of a dove. Another great song, Light of a clear blue morning, showed Dolly was looking for something new, and the other tracks featured here represent some of her pop-sounding records from 1977 and 1978.

Of these tracks, I love Baby I'm burning (which some think is Dolly's worst recording, but it's a great slice of country disco), Here you come again, Me and little Andy and It's all wrong but it's all right. I have never been able to get excited about Heartbreaker and I really got the feeling, but I've got used to them over a quarter of a century.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for two songs, the other eighteen make this is an outstanding compilation which certainly lives up to it's Essential name.

It took me a long time to get to a point where I know that I have nearly all of her songs, which are all beautiful, uplifting and in many cases supurb. Most everything she did is now in print starting with the superb Essential Series compilations. The Essential Series were the first sign that RCA was beginning to recognize that their forgotten country superstars had a substantial amount of material out of print. Much of this has been recovered on the "The Essential Volume 1", "The Essential Volume 2" and "The Essential Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton"-all truly essential to real fans.

I waited impatiently for this long awaited 1997 release. Finally on CD were long forgotten hits such as her first #1 smash "Joshua" from 1970 and the Billy Vera penned "I Really Got The Feeling" from her 1978 LP "Heartbreaker" and, of course, the title track which spent three weeks on the top of the country charts and hit #37 Pop. Not to mention other notable reissues including the original version of "Light Of A Clear Blue Morning", the "Stairway to Heaven" inspired "We Used To", catchy and pure fun "All I Can Do" and the haunting "Me And Little Andy" that once graced the 1982 Greatest Hits LP. This is a perfect hits collection from the late 1960's to 1978, but chart success alone overlooked some of her very best including the amazing "My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy" that failed to reach the country Top 40 in 1969. Also omitted from the album was Dolly's disco dud "Baby I'm Burnin'" that reached #25 Pop but still appears on other compilations.

No doubt, though, is that this is an impressive collection that captures exactly what made Dolly Parton the incredible superstar she is. Her angelic voice can turn any song into something special and is definitely worth owning.