Search - Dolly Parton :: 9 to 5 & Odd Jobs

Country and pop from Hollywood Dolly

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 03/31/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In celebration of 9 to 5: The Musical's Broadway debut, RCA/Legacy has reissued Parton's 1980 album with a trio of bonus tracks. Building on the 1977 pop breakthrough, "Here You Come Again," 9 to 5 (as a film, album and single) cemented Parton's draw beyond her core country audience. She'd released Dolly, Dolly, Dolly earlier in the year, and its orchestrated AOL covers freed her to indulge more country sounds here. The 9 to 5 album topped the country chart and the title single topped the country, pop and AC charts. The album's second single, a light-pop cover of the First Edition's "But You Know I Love You" (originally sung by future duet partner Kenny Rogers) also topped the country chart, and a disco cover of "The House of the Rising Sun" made the top twenty.



The hit singles provide a fare representation of the album's variety. Parton's originals include the hopeful, country gospel "Hush-A-Bye Hard Times," the unapologetic portrait "Working Girl," and the homespun values of "Poor Folks Town." The covers are more diverse, including a delicate reading of Woody Guthrie's "Deportee" and a solemn take on Merle Travis' "Dark as a Dungeon." Less successful is the pedestrian Nashville backing given to Mel Tillis' "Detroit City" and Mike Post's badly aging arrangement of "Sing for the Common Man." Yet even when backed by hackneyed keyboards, liquid guitars and by-the-numbers strings, Parton's voice still shines.



The struggles and successes of working people provide the album a theme, but the album never musters the artistic force of Coat of Many Colors, My Tennessee Mountain Home or Jolene. Parton's in excellent voice throughout, but her bid for broader commercial success leaves several tracks uncomfortably laden with pop clichés. Legacy's 2009 reissue adds a previously unreleased session cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People," a beat-heavy 2008 house remix of "9 to 5," and a lead vocal-free remix of "9 to 5" that puts you in Dolly's rhinestone-studded high-heeled shoes. Bonuses aside, it's the album's originals and selected covers that make this an essential entry in Parton's catalog. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]"

"More Great "80's Dolly!"

Terry Richard | Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada | 03/31/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The release of Dolly's "9 to 5 and Odd Jobs" CD this year is to coincide with the debut of Dolly's "9 to 5-The Broadway Musical", which opens in New York on April 30th, 2009. She also wrote all the music for the musical and is one of its producers.

This marks the third time Dolly's 1980 masterpiece has been released on CD. It originally came out on CD in the mid to late '90s, but RCA did a bad job in its release-only 8 tracks were included. Then in 1999 Buddha Records, in conjunction with RCA, released the album again with beautiful repackaging and all 10 tracks were included with renewed audio. Now comes this wonderful CD edition with bonus tracks.

"9 to 5 and Odd Jobs" has gone on to be one of Dolly Parton's most successful albums in her career. It went all the way to #1 on the country charts, where it stayed for a whopping 10 weeks (her longest stay there), garnered Dolly 2 Grammy wins, one for Best Country Song and one for Best Country Vocal Performance, both for the song "9 to 5", and the album went Gold selling 500,000 copies. If RCA would do some research on the sales of this album in 2009, the accumlated sales would bring it to over a million copies. Since Dolly is no longer with RCA the label refuses to do an accounting of her old albums, which is not only an insult to us Dolly fans, but to Miss Parton herself, who is one of the greatest entertainers and singers in the world.

The album title song went to number one on the country charts and became Dolly's first #1 pop song and her second million selling single, after "Here You Come Again". "9 to 5" also is one of those rare songs in which a female country act had the song go to the top of both the country and pop charts. The last song to do this prior to "9 to 5" was "Harper Valley PTA" back in 1968. "9 to 5" also went on to beat Tammy Wynette's classic "Stand By Your Man", in terms of sales for a single.

"9 to 5 and Odd Jobs" also produced another #1 country hit, Kenny Roger's and The First Edition's "But You Know I love You". The CD has many other covers, among the best is "Detroit City", which Dolly makes her own. "The House of the Rising Sun" is also performed here and Dolly sounds impeccable on the vocal.

Mike Post, a big Hollywood record producer who Dolly met on the "Merv Griffin Show" in the late '70s, produced the bulk of the CD's songs, but it was Dollys long-time friend and band leader Gregg Perry who produced the "9 to 5" single. Mike Post would also go on to produce Dolly's "Rhinestone" album in 1984.

An old Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton song also surfaces here, "Poor Folks Town", which Dolly wrote, and was included on the duos "Together Always" album in 1972.

The crowning jewel in this particular CD collection are 3 bonus tracks, including a karaoke version of "9 to 5", a dance mix version of the same song, and the previous unreleased track "Everyday People", which was a pop hit in the late '60s. "Everday People" is also one of Dolly's best vocal performances ever. Even if you have the Buddha release of this CD pick up this collection, simply to have the bonuses. No Dolly collection is complete without it."