ISLANDS IN THE STREAM ~ KENNY ROGERS AND DOLLY PARTON

"Islands in the Stream" is the title of a song written by the Bee Gees and sung by American country music artists Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. It was released in August 1983 as the first single from Rogers' album Eyes That See in the Dark and the second pop number-one for both Rogers and Parton (Rogers having been there with 1980's "Lady" and Parton with 1981's "9 to 5"). They went on to record a Christmas album together, and had an additional hit with their 1985 duet "Real Love". The Gibbs originally wrote the song for Marvin Gaye in an R&B style, only later to change it for the Kenny Rogers album.

It also spent two weeks as the number one country song and in the year's final countdown was the number one song of the year of 1983. In December of that year it was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping two million copies in the US. In Australia, the song was number one for one week in December 1983 and becoming one of the highest selling singles of 1984. In 2005, the song topped CMT's poll of the best country duets of all time; Parton and Rogers reunited to perform the song on the CMT special.

In April 2008, South Bend, Indiana radio station WZOW played the song continuously for several days on end. This was a stunt used to draw attention to the station's format change from alternative rock to adult contemporary.

BETTER GET TO LIVIN' ~ DOLLY PARTON

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Bluedreamer's Choice No 45

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"Better Get to Livin'" is the first single from Dolly Parton's album, Backwoods Barbie, and was released on August 28, 2007. It was the first single released by Parton's own record label, Dolly Records. An upbeat country pop song, its lyrics deal with keeping a positive attitude and overcoming negative emotions. The song garnered positive reviews from critics and reached number 48 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. A video for the song, featuring Parton and Amy Sedaris, was released later that year.Critics gave the song positive reviews. Jim Malec, writing for The 9513, remarked that the song "should have been a hit… Dolly sounds as good (maybe better) than she ever has." Jac Chebatoris of Newsweek considered it "the CD's standout tune", and remarked that Parton's voice on the track is "still powerful and clear after all these years." Allmusic was somewhat less enthusiastic, deeming the song "cloyingly wise", but "catchy enough". Chris Jones, writing for the BBC's online service, remarked on the song's feminist undertones, characterizing it as "a strident ode to the lessons that Parton's learned in a lifetime spent in an arena where men most definitely are men and women are expected to be grateful."The music video for "Better Get to Livin'" is set in a carnival, filmed on location at a farm in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The video begins with Parton putting on her make-up while a hawker, played by Amy Sedaris, tells everyone to gather around. Parton comes out and begins singing to the depressed women in the audience. The next segment has Parton comforting a friend in the kitchen of her house. The video then returns to the carnival where Parton is running a projector showing an old-fashioned silent movie. In the movie, a fortune-teller (also played by Sedaris) is telling Parton's friend all the things that are wrong with her life. Parton then sings to the women in the audience about how to cope with their problems by keeping a good attitude. At the end, everyone leaves the carnival with their spirits lifted.

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These Top 50 songs are based on my personal choice and are not listed in order
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WHEN YOU TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME ~ DIANA ROSS

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Bluedreamer's Choice No 35

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"When You Tell Me That You Love Me" is a 1991 song released as a single by American soul singer Diana Ross. The song was subsequently covered by various artists. Diana actually re-recorded a version with Westlife in 2006 that peaked at #1 in Ireland, #2 in England and Top 10 across several European countries. It also made Top 10 in Japan and Australia. "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" was the lead single from Diana Ross's 1991 album The Force Behind the Power released on the Motown label in the US and by EMI in the UK. The song, a sentimental ballad, was the album's biggest hit, peaking at number thirty-seven on the US Billboard R&B singles chart while peaking at number-two on the UK Top 75 singles chart. Ross considers it one of her signature songs. The UK release included her 1985 hit "Chain Reaction." he song was recorded in a duet form by Dolly Parton and Julio Iglesias for the latter's 1994 album Crazy. "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" is the second single released from Westlife's fifth studio album, Face To Face album. It features vocals from original artist Diana Ross. The single peaked at #2 on the UK Singles Chart, just losing out on the top spot by a mere 171 copies.

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These Top 50 songs are based on my personal choice and are not listed in order
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COATS OF MANY COLORS ~ DOLLY PARTON

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Bluedreamer's Choice No 17

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"Coat of Many Colors" is a song by Dolly Parton, which she has described on numerous occasions as her favorite of the songs she has written. She composed the song in 1969, while traveling with Porter Wagoner on a tour bus. (She explained in her 1994 memoire, "My Life and Other Unfinished Business", because she could find no paper, as the song came to her, she wrote it on the back of a dry cleaning receipt from one of Wagoner's suits; when the song became a hit, Wagoner had the receipt framed.) She recorded the song in April 1971, making it the title song for her Coat of Many Colors album. Released as single in August 1971, the song reached #4 on the U.S. country singles charts. The song tells of how Parton's mother stitched together a coat for her daughter out of rags given to the family. As she sewed, she told her child the biblical story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colors. The excited child, "with patches on my britches and holes in both my shoes," rushed to school, "just to find the others laughing and making fun of me" for wearing a coat made of rags. Shania Twain recorded a cover version of the song on the 2003 Parton tribute album Just Because I'm a Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton, with accompaniment by Alison Krauss and Union Station. In 2008, Kristy Lee Cook performed this song on American Idol (season 7) during Dolly Parton week.


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These Top 50 songs are based on my personal choice and are not listed in order
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Music Monday ~ Jesus and Gravity by Dolly Parton

Here's my MM entry... One of my favorite Dolly Parton hit... This is her most recent album released last 2008
Hope you enjoy it

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the actual post link here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava's Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.


PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

JOLENE ~ DOLLY PARTON

"Jolene" is a song written and performed by Dolly Parton from her album Jolene (1974). It is ranked #217 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". "Jolene" tells the tale of a housewife confronting a beautiful seductress who she believes is trying to steal away her husband and begging her "please don't take my man". The song became Parton's second solo number-one single on the country charts after being released as a single in late 1973 (prior to the album's release). It reached the top position in February 1974; it also was a moderate pop hit for her and a minor adult contemporary chart entry, and was released as a single in the UK the following year, where it reached number seven in the UK singles chart. Parton has said that the inspiration for the "Jolene" character was a tall, red-headed bank teller who Parton believed was flirting with her husband, and her husband's apparent vulnerability to the teller's charm as indicated by his sudden interest in making frequent trips to the bank. In her live performances of the song, Dolly often states she fought this woman tooth and nail for her husband. However, Parton has also stated that the name "Jolene" was taken from the name of a little red-headed girl with green eyes seeking an autograph after a concert.

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU ~ DOLLY PARTON

"I Will Always Love You" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton in 1973, who first released the song as a single in 1974. American singer Whitney Houston's (1992) version of the song became one of the best-selling singles of all time. Dolly Parton wrote the song in 1973 and it was released a year later, having been produced by Bob Ferguson. She has told numerous interviewers over the years that she wrote it for her one-time partner and mentor Porter Wagoner, with whom she was having a business splitting at the time. Recorded on June 17, 1973 in RCA's Studio "B" in Nashville, the song was included on Parton's album Jolene, and was released as a follow-up single, after the country chart-topping success of the title track, in April 1974. The single reached number 1 on the Billboard' Hot Country Songs a month later, but had just modest success on the pop charts. The lyrics express a bittersweet and poignant ode to an ex-lover, and are delivered with Parton's distinctive twang. Parton re-recorded the song in 1982 to include it on the soundtrack of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the film version of the Broadway musical of the same name. Her 1982 version also reached number 1 on the U.S. Hot Country Songs, marking the first time the same song reached number 1 on the country charts twice by the same artist. The 1982 version also saw limited crossover pop success, reaching number 53 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 17 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks.



Lyrics | Dolly Parton lyrics - I Will Always Love You lyrics

COAT OF MANY COLORS ~ DOLLY PARTON

Coat of Many Colors is a 1971 album and single by Dolly Parton. The title song, which Parton has described as her favourite of all the songs she's ever written, deals with the poverty of her childhood. It reached #4 on the U.S. country singles charts.Over the years, Parton would re-record a number of the songs from the album. She redid "Traveling Man" (not to be confused with the Ricky Nelson song of the same name), a song that involved an unusual love triangle between a travelling salesman, a woman, and her mother, for inclusion on her 1973 album Bubbling Over. She would also re-record her composition "My Blue Tears", an "old-timey" folk-influenced song, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt in the mid-1970s, for an ill-fated Trio album project. (The recording would eventually surface on Ronstadt's 1982 album Get Closer). Parton cut the song for a third time in 2001, including it on her Little Sparrow album. "Early Morning Breeze" later appeared on her 1974 Jolene album."A Better Place to Live" was a song very much of its time, dealing with living in a utopian, peaceful world where people love one another, and was very much in the same vein as Jackie DeShannon's recent hit "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" (which Parton herself would later cover in 1993).In 2003, the album was ranked number 299 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It subsequently made Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2006.A re-issue released in 2007, in conjunction with Parton's 2007 European Tour, featured previously unreleased songs.



Lyrics | Dolly Parton lyrics - Coat Of Many Colors lyrics

BABY I'M BURNING ~ DOLLY PARTON

"Baby I'm Burning" was a 1978 song written and performed by Dolly Parton that was part of a double-A-sided single "Baby I'm Burning"/"I Really Got the Feeling". Released from Parton's RCA album Heartbreaker, after the success of the title single, "Baby I'm Burning" reached number twenty five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1979, , and also became a surprise hit on the disco chart, peaking at number fifteen. n addition to the standard 45-rpm single, an extended dance single, entled "Dance With Dolly" was released, including an extended dance version of the song, intended for airplay in discos and dance clubs. While "Baby, I'm Burning" did get some country airplay in late 1978 and early 1979, it was the flip side — "I Really Got the Feeling" — that caught on with country music fans.



Lyrics | Dolly Parton lyrics - Baby I'm Burning lyrics

9 TO 5 ~ DOLLY PARTON

"9 to 5" is the title of a Grammy-winning, number-one song written and originally performed by Dolly Parton for the 1980 film comedy Nine to Five, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Parton in her film debut.he film's title song garnered Parton an Academy Award nomination and four Grammy Award nominations, winning her the awards for "Best Country Song" and "Best Country Vocal Performance, Female". In addition to appearing on the film soundtrack, the song was the centerpiece of Parton's 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs album, released in late 1980. The song was released as a single in November 1980 and reached number one on both the Billboard Country Chart and the Billboard Hot 100 in January and February of 1981, respectively. For a time, the song became something of an anthem for office workers in the U.S., and as recently as 2004 Parton's song ranked number seventy-eight on American Film Institute's "100 years, 100 songs". The song is one of the rare Billboard hits with the endurance to hit number one, be replaced by another song at the top spot (Eddie Rabbitt's "I Love A Rainy Night"), and then return to the number one position three weeks later. It is also one of the few Billboard chart songs to feature the clacking of a typewriter. Parton has stated in a number of interviews through the years that when she wrote the song, she devised the clacking typewriter rhythm running her acrylic fingernails back and forth against one another. The song is featured in a musical theater adaptation of the film, featuring a book by the film's original writer, Patricia Resnick, and 20 additional songs written by Dolly Parton



Lyrics | Dolly Parton lyrics - 9 To 5 lyrics

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU ~ WHITNEY HOUSTON

"I Will Always Love You" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton in 1973. In 1992, singer Whitney Houston recorded the song for the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, her film debut. Houston was originally to record Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" as the lead single from The Bodyguard. However, when it was discovered the song was to be used for Fried Green Tomatoes, Houston requested a different song and her co-star Kevin Costner brought her Linda Ronstadt's 1975 version of "I Will Always Love You" from her album Prisoner in Disguise. Houston and producer David Foster re-arranged the song as a soul ballad. Her record company did not feel a song with an a cappella introduction would be as successful; however, Houston and Costner insisted to maintain an a cappella intro. Whitney Houston's recording is not the only version of the song featured in the movie. In a scene where she dances with Kevin Costner, a version by John Doe can be heard playing on a jukebox. Houston's version was a massive worldwide success, selling over 15 million copies worldwide. It became a regular on countdown lists: appearing at number 8 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the Past 25 Years; number 4 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s and number 1 on VH1's 100 Greatest Love Songs. The song also lists at number 68 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time.

Lyrics | Whitney Houston lyrics - I Will Always Love You lyrics