Dolly Parton's 1982 album GREATEST HITS is a poor excuse for a greatest hits album. What was RCA thinking? First we only have 9 tracks on here. On the cassette, there are 3 additional songs which do not show up on the CD, which makes no sense. "Applejack", "Heartbreak Express" and "Me And Little Andy" fail to make an appearance on the CD. Instead we have 9 songs, which don't even make up 30 minutes of music on this CD. There are some great songs though, like a new version of "I Will Always Love You", and classics like "It's All Wrong But It's All Right", "Two Doors Down", "9 to 5", "Islands in the Stream", "But You Know I Love You", "Here You Come Again", "Old Flames (Cant Hold A Candle To You)" and "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind". Nice songs, but overall disapointing considering her catalog, and the amount of music each CD can hold, this is not good. Save your money and buy another compilation which has all of these songs, and more.

This album was originally released in 1982. Actually, it was the first Dolly album I ever bought, of course back then it was on vinyl. The album was a big success at the time. The original pressing of the album included 12 songs, one of them being "Hard Candy Christmas" from the "Best Little Whorehouse In Texas" soundtrack. That song was dropped once "Islands In The Stream" became a big hit. At the time "Greatest Hits" was the only Dolly album where you could find "Islands". The original LP also included a gatefold cover that opened up to show a bunch of Dolly photos from thruout the years covered on the album, roughly 1977 thru 1982. The back cover featured shots of Dolly from "Whorehouse". In 1985 the album was released on CD. It contained all the same elements of the original album (however as with all versions of the album at that time, "Hard Candy Christmas" had been replaced). The CD had all the photos and liner notes that LP had. RCA was among the first record labels to issue CDs, Dolly had four albums issued on CD at the beginning of the format. "Greatest Hits", "Real Love", "Rhinestone" and her Christmas album with Kenny Rogers. All of these went out of print very quickly. Only "Greatest Hits" and the Christmas album were re-issued later on. By then RCA was putting out "budget" versions of the albums, removing songs that were on the original LP's. "Greatest Hits" lost three songs and all of the artwork, except the cover. The Christmas album also lost the Kenny Rogers solo songs, as well as the lyrics and artwork, except the cover shot.

Today original copies of these CD's can be found only on eBay, but the later re-issues can be found anywhere. Back in the day, this was the only Dolly album to combine "Here You Come Again" with "9 To 5", "Islands In The Stream" etc. Today these songs have been reissued many many times making this album redundant. If you're a collector search out the original 1985 CD version. Good luck!

Being a true Dolly fan I dont need this album to know the greatest that this woman has, but for those that are new to Dolly or just want to hear the brillance in her voice and song writing this album is a good place to start.

The record company should re-release this version with a few additions. They should remaster this hit collection, and add a few other big hits from that time-period. The tracklist should go like this:

9 To 5

But You Know I Love You

Heartbreak Express

Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle

Starting Over Again

Baby I'm Burnin'

Me And Little Andy

Applejack

Here You Come Again

Hard Candy Christmas

Two Doors Down

It's All Wrong, But It's All Right

Do I Ever Cross Your Mind

You're The Only One

Heartbreaker

Islands In The Stream

I Will Always Love You

That's only 17 hits from that time. Only 5 more than the original 12 track album.

This is not the only Greatest Hits C.D. available but it is the best without a doubt as it illustrates songs like "Jolene" "Heartbreaker" "Love is like a butterfly" as well as the later hits like "Baby I'm Burnin" and "9 - 5".

Also though her rendition of "Save the last dance for me" which suits her voice so well and a song most associated with Whitney Houston but written by Dolly .. "I will always love you" and while Whitney sings it amazingly, the sentiment of it is very much more apparent in its writers version.

Also my favourite duet with Kenny Rogers "Islands in the stream" features as do two of my most favourite Dolly Parton songs "Here you come again" and "The Only One"! So if you are looking for a C.D. of the greatest of the greatest by Dolly ... in this collection you have found it for sure !