Heartbreak Express

{{more citations needed|date=December 2010}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Heartbreak Express

| type = Album

| artist = Dolly Parton

| cover = heartbreakexperss.jpg

| alt =

| released = March 29, 1982

| recorded = December 1981–January 1982

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Country

| length = 35:29

| label = RCA Victor

| producer = Dolly Parton

| prev_title = 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs

| prev_year = 1980

| next_title = The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

| next_year = 1982

| misc = {{Singles

| name = Heartbreak Express

| type = studio

| single1 = Single Women

| single1date = February 1, 1982

| single2 = Heartbreak Express

| single2date = May 3, 1982

| single3 = Do I Ever Cross Your Mind

| single3date = July 12, 1982

}}

}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic | rev1Score ={{Rating|3|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r108079}}

|rev2= Robert Christgau| rev2Score={{Rating-Christgau|B-}}{{cite web |url= http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=372 |title=Robert Christgau: CG: Artist 372 |work=robertchristgau.com |access-date=20 June 2011}}

| rev3 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev3score = {{rating|2|5}}{{r|larkin}}

| noprose = yes

}}

Heartbreak Express in the twenty-fourth solo studio album by American entertainer Dolly Parton. It was released on March 29, 1982, by RCA Records. The album returned Parton to a more fully realized country sound (a process she had begun on the previous year's 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs), after her late 1970s pop recordings. The album's first single, "Single Women", a slow-tempo honkytonk ballad about a singles bar, was written by Saturday Night Live writer Michael O'Donoghue, and had previously appeared in an SNL skit in late 1980. The single provided a top ten single for Parton. The title cut also was a top ten hit for her. "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" (a song Parton had written in the early 1970s but had never officially recorded) appeared as a double-A-sided single (along with Parton's rerecording of "I Will Always Love You" from the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), and reached No. 1 on the country charts in August 1982.

"Hollywood Potters", Parton has explained to interviewers, came out of her experience filming the movie 9 to 5, as Parton watched many of the film's extras and bit players, who had worked very hard at acting through the years, but with very little success. Heartbreak Express was re-released in digital format in 2013.

Track listing

{{track listing

| all_writing = Dolly Parton except as noted

| total_length = 35:29

| title1 = Heartbreak Express

| length1 = 3:13

| title2 = Single Women

| writer2 = Michael O'Donoghue

| length2 = 3:44

| title3 = My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy

| length3 = 3:49

| title4 = As Much As Always

| length4 = 3:01

| title5 = Do I Ever Cross Your Mind

| length5 = 4:01

| title6 = Release Me

| writer6 = Eddie Miller, Dub Williams, Robert Yount

| length6 = 3:27

| title7 = Barbara on Your Mind

| length7 = 3:09

| title8 = Act Like a Fool

| length8 = 3:24

| title9 = Prime of Our Love

| length9 = 3:46

| title10 = Hollywood Potters

| length10 = 3:55

}}

Personnel

Major releases

class="wikitable sortable"
FormatImprintCatalogue No.TerritoryYear
PromoRCARCALP 3076United Kingdom1982
LPRCARCALP 3076United Kingdom1982
LPRCAAHL1-14289United States1982
LPRCAHL 14289France1982
LPRCA Italiana S.p.A.PL 14389Italy1982
CD ReissueRCA54289-2Europe2010

Chart performance

Album

class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

! Chart (1982)

! Peak
position

{{album chart|BillboardCountry|5|artist=Dolly Parton|album=Heartbreak Express|access-date=April 2, 2020}}
{{Album chart|Billboard200|106|artist=Dolly Parton}}
{{album chart|Sweden|41|artist=Dolly Parton|album=Heartbreak Express|access-date=23 December 2024}}
US Cashbox Country Albums{{cite web|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/80s/1982/CB-1982-06-12.pdf|title=Cash Box Country Albums|work=Cashbox|access-date=23 December 2024}}

|align="center"|7

US Cash Box Top Albums {{cite web|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/80s/1982/CB-1982-05-22.pdf|title=Cash Box Top 100 Albums|work=Cashbox|access-date=23 December 2024}}

|align="center"|127

Album (Year-End)

class="wikitable"

!align="left"|Chart (1982)

!align="left"|Peak
Position

align="left"|US Top Country Albums (Billboard){{cite magazine |title=Billboard Top Country Albums - Year-End Charts (1982) |url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1982/top-country-albums |magazine=Billboard |access-date= 2 December 2020}}

|align="center"|32

References

{{Reflist | refs =

{{cite book|author=Colin Larkin|author-link=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|edition=4th|volume=6|date=2006|publisher=Muze, Oxford University Press|page=435{{ndash}}6|isbn=978-0-19-531373-4|chapter=Parton, Dolly|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofpo0006unse/page/435/}}

}}