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
- Dolly Parton - vocals
- Albert Lee, Fred Tackett, Jeff Baxter, Mike Severs, Steve Cropper - guitar
- Abraham Laboriel, Leland Sklar, Nathan East - bass
- Joe McGuffee - steel guitar
- Buddy Spicher - fiddle
- Gregg Perry - dulcimer, backing vocals
- Red Young, Ron Oates - keyboards
- Eddy Anderson - drums
- Lenny Castro - congas
- Terry McMillan - harmonica
- Alex Brown, Anita Ball, Denise Maynelli, Gene Morford, Jim Salestrom, Richard Dennison, Roy Galloway, Stephanie Spruill, Willie Greene Jr. - backing vocals
- Chuck Findley, Gary Grant, Gary Herbig, George Bohanon, Jim Horn, Slyde Hyde, Tom Saviano, Tom Scott - horns
- Herb Ritts - Photography
Major releases
class="wikitable sortable" | ||||
Format | Imprint | Catalogue No. | Territory | Year |
---|---|---|---|---|
Promo | RCA | RCALP 3076 | United Kingdom | 1982 |
LP | RCA | RCALP 3076 | United Kingdom | 1982 |
LP | RCA | AHL1-14289 | United States | 1982 |
LP | RCA | HL 14289 | France | 1982 |
LP | RCA Italiana S.p.A. | PL 14389 | Italy | 1982 |
CD Reissue | RCA | 54289-2 | Europe | 2010 |
Chart performance
Album
class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
! Chart (1982) ! Peak |
{{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 |
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/}}
}}
External links
- [http://www.dollyon-line.com/archives/albums/heartbexp/index.shtml Heartbreak Express at Dolly Parton On-Line]
{{Dolly Parton}}
{{Authority control}}