Name any recording that you immediately associate with country music legend Dolly Parton and there’s a better than average chance that she not only sang it, she wrote it too. Dolly has been recording regularly since the mid-60s and almost every major hit she has ever had (and quite a few minor ones too) she wrote or co-wrote.

Somehow this important component of her overall musical skillset is all too frequently overlooked by the public at large, who know Dolly for her luminous public image and gregarious personality without necessarily realising that she is also a brilliant songwriter.

Dolly Parton wrote hit songs for other artists before she really had any hit records of her own. The ink in her pen has never gone dry and although she’s not as prolific as she once was, she still writes songs – these days mostly for herself – that other artists are happy to record. A generous sampling of her best work from more than half a century of song-writing is collected here in Ace’s latest instalment of our long-running and highly-regarded songwriter series.

It would have been easy to fill this compilation with covers of her songs by Dolly’s country peers but, as can be seen from the track listing, her work has been embraced by a variety of artists – from Percy Sledge to Nana Mouskouri to Tina Turner to the Incredible String Band – and across a variety of genres. The versions used here have been selected to demonstrate the breadth of Dolly’s catalogue and to show how comfortably her songs fit any artist who chooses to cut them.

As always, our CD booklet overflows with rare images and a generously-worded track-by-track annotation by compiler and scribe Tony Rounce. Dolly remains an iconic artist and her popularity remains undiminished as she edges towards her 80th birthday. It’s to be hoped that Ace’s sincere salute to her words and music will help to ensure that they preserve a formidable musical legacy.

1 9 to 5 - Dolly Parton
2 Nickels and Dimes - Buck Owens
3 Here I Am - Percy Sledge
4 In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) -
5 The Everly Brothers
6 Two Doors Down - Zella Lehr
7 My Blue Tears - the Incredible String Band
8 Down from Dover - Sally Timms & Jon Langford
9 Touch Your Woman - Margie Joseph
10 Kentucky Gambler - Merle Haggard & the Strangers
11 Coat of Many Colors - Emmylou Harris
12 Light of a Clear Blue Morning - Glen Campbell
13 Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind - Rhiannon Giddens
14 Do I Ever Cross Your Mind -
15 Chet Atkins Featuring Dolly Parton
16 I Will Always Love You - Linda Ronstadt
17 I Lived So Fast and Hard - Porter Wagoner
18 Jolene (Live 'Under Great White Northern Lights' Version) -
19 The White Stripes
20 My Tennessee Mountain Home - Maria Muldaur
21 Little Sparrow - Bettye Lavette
22 Put It Off Until Tomorrow - Bill Phillips
23 Most of All Why - Holly Dunn
24 I'm in No Condition - Hank Williams JR
25 Love Is Like a Butterfly - Nana Mouskouri
26 With Bells on - Ru Paul Featuring Michelle Visage
27 There'll Always Be Music - Tina Turner