''Rainbow'' is the twenty-eighth solo studio album by
Dolly Parton. It was released on November 25, 1987, by
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
. The original plan, when Parton signed with CBS, was for her to alternate between releasing pop and country albums (rather than trying to combine the two styles on each album), but due to ''Rainbows poor sales and tepid critical reception, the plan was quickly abandoned, and Parton more or less focused on recording country material for the remainder of her association with the label.
The album was among Parton's lowest charting albums to that point. It stalled at 153 on the U.S. pop albums charts and barely cracked the top twenty on the country albums charts; its first single, "
The River Unbroken
"The River Unbroken" is a song by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton, which was released in 1987 as the lead single from her twenty-eighth studio album ''Rainbow''. It was written by Darrell Brown and David Batteau, and produced by Steve "G ...
" missed the country top 40 entirely, stalling at # 63, and did not make the pop charts; its second single, "I Know You by Heart", a duet with
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief ...
, did not chart at all. A third single, "Make Love Work", was released in June 1988, but fared poorly, likely due, in part, to competition from "
Wildflowers", a top-ten single by Parton,
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including ...
and
Linda Ronstadt released from their 1987 ''Trio'' album a month earlier.
''Rainbow''s release coincided with the launch of Parton's ill-fated 1987-88 variety show, ''
Dolly
Dolly may refer to:
Tools
*Dolly (tool), a portable anvil
* A posser, also known as a dolly, used for laundering
* A variety of wheeled tools, including:
**Dolly (trailer), for towing behind a vehicle
**Boat dolly or launching dolly, a device fo ...
'', and much of the music on the album was highlighted on the show.
Track listing
Personnel
*Dolly Parton – vocals
*
Waddy Wachtel – acoustic and electric guitar
*Kevin Dukes,
Rick Vito – electric guitar, slide guitar
*
Dann Huff,
Michael Landau
Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mitch ...
– electric guitar
*
Al Perkins – steel guitar
*
Danny Kortchmar – 12-string acoustic guitar
*
Bob Glaub,
Leland Sklar,
Abraham Laboriel – bass
*Steve Goldstein – keyboards, acoustic piano, synthesizer, bass synthesizer, drum programming
*Bill Cuomo – synthesizer, synthesizer organ
*Robert O'Hearn – synthesizer
*Patricia Mabee – harpsichord
*John Vigran – drum programming
*
Craig Krampf – drum overdubs, drum programming
*
Jim Keltner – drums, percussion
*
Buck Trent
Charles Wilburn "Buck" Trent (born February 17, 1938) is an American country music instrumentalist currently performing in Branson, Missouri. He invented the electric banjo and also plays the five-string banjo, dobro, steel guitar, mandolin, e ...
– electric banjo
*Bobby Bruce – violin
*
Tom Scott – saxophone
*
David Campbell – string arrangements, conductor
*Hammer Smith – chromatic harmonica
*Julia Waters, Maxine Waters, Richard Dennison,
Carmen Twillie,
Mike Chapman, Blaise Tosti, Anita Ball – backing vocals
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
External links
Rainbow at Dolly Parton On-Line
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rainbow (Dolly Parton Album)
Columbia Records albums
Dolly Parton albums
1987 albums