''Rainbow'' is the twenty-eighth solo studio album by

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...

. It was released on November 25, 1987, by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. 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" missed the country top 40 entirely, stalling at #63, and did not make the pop chart. The album's second single, "I Know You by Heart", a duet with

Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. He was the founder and frontman of the pioneering Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he ...

, did not chart at all, but was covered by

Bette Midler Bette Midler ( ;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her five-decade career Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Bette Midler, numero ...

the following year for the soundtrack of the movie

Beaches A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

. A third single, "Make Love Work", was released in June 1988, but fared poorly, likely due, in part, to competition from "

Wildflowers A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, rather than being intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is any different from the native plant, eve ...

", a top-ten single by Parton,

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana (music), Americana genre ...

and

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who has performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music. Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three A ...

released from their 1987 ''Trio'' album a month earlier. ''Rainbow''s release coincided with the launch of Parton's ill-fated 1987-1988 variety show. '' Dolly'', 2 songs from the album, 'Could I Have Your Autograph' and 'Savin' It For You' were highlighted on the show.

Track listing

Personnel

*Dolly Parton – vocals *

Waddy Wachtel Robert "Waddy" Wachtel (born May 24, 1947) is an American musician, composer and record producer, most notable for his guitar work. Wachtel has worked as session musician for other artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Beth Hart, Stevie Nicks, Miranda ...

– acoustic and electric guitar *Kevin Dukes,

Rick Vito Richard Francis Vito (born October 13, 1949) is an American guitarist and singer. He was part of Fleetwood Mac between 1987 and 1991. Vito took over as lead guitarist after Lindsey Buckingham left the group. He is best known for his blues and ...

– electric guitar, slide guitar *

Dann Huff Dann Lee Huff (born November 15, 1960) is an American record producer, studio guitarist, and songwriter. For his work as a producer in the country music genre, he has won several awards, including the ''Musician of the Year'' award in 2001, 2004 ...

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 Mitchel ...

– electric guitar *

Al Perkins Al Perkins (born January 18, 1944) is an American guitarist known primarily for his steel guitar work. The Gibson guitar company called Perkins "the world's most influential Dobro player" and began producing an "Al Perkins Signature" Dobro in 2 ...

– steel guitar *

Danny Kortchmar Daniel Kortchmar (born April 6, 1946), also known as Danny Kootch, is an American guitarist, session musician, producer and songwriter. His work with singer-songwriters such as Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Carole King, David Cassi ...

– 12-string acoustic guitar *

Bob Glaub Bob Glaub (born May 10, 1952)Hageman, William (April 29, 2005)."The aces of bass: Five giants of an overshadowed instrument", Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. is an American bass player and session musician. He has played with such artists an ...

Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. He rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coalesced into a group in its own right, The Section, which supported so many of Asylu ...

Abraham Laboriel Abraham Laboriel López (born July 17, 1947) is a Mexican-American bassist who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks. ''Guitar Player'' magazine called him "the most widely used session bassist of our time". Laboriel is the fathe ...

– 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 Craig Krampf (born October 22, 1954) is an American drummer, percussionist, arranger, record producer and songwriter. The majority of his notable credits are as a studio drummer. Since the 1970s, he has played on albums by other artists ranging f ...

– drum overdubs, drum programming *

Jim Keltner James Lee Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America". Howard Sounes. ''Do ...

– drums, percussion *

Buck Trent Charles Wilburn "Buck" Trent (February 17, 1938 – October 9, 2023) was an American country music instrumentalist. He played the five-string banjo, dobro, steel guitar, mandolin, electric bass and guitar. Biography Charles Wilburn Trent was ...

– 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 Michael Donald Chapman (born 13 April 1947) is an Australian record producer and songwriter who was a major force in the British pop music industry in the 1970s. He created a string of hit singles for artists including The Sweet, Suzi Quatro ...

, 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