The Bargain Store
1975 studio album by Dolly Parton
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The Bargain Store is the fifteenth solo studio album by American entertainer Dolly Parton. It was released on February 17, 1975, by RCA Victor. In the Parton-penned title track, one of her best-known compositions, she used worn, second-hand merchandise in a discount store as a metaphor for a woman damaged by an ill-fated relationship. The song was dropped from a number of country stations' playlists when programmers mistook the line "you can easily afford the price" as a thinly veiled reference to prostitution. Despite the decrease in airplay, the song nonetheless topped the U.S. country singles charts in April 1975.
| The Bargain Store | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 17, 1975 | |||
| Recorded | RCA Studios, Nashville, December 1974 – January 1975 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 25:42 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Bob Ferguson, Porter Wagoner | |||
| Dolly Parton chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Bargain Store | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [2] |
The album was largely made up of Parton's own compositions but also contained Merle Haggard's "You'll Always Be Special to Me". (Haggard, in turn, covered Parton's "Kentucky Gambler", from this album, later in 1975.)
The album was re-released for the first time in December 2013. It was made available as a digital download on iTunes.[3] This is the first time that eight of the songs ("When I'm Gone", "The Only Hand You'll Need to Hold", "I Want to Be What You Need", "Love to Remember", "You'll Always Be Special to Me", "He Would Know" and "I'll Never Forget") have been made available outside of the original LP, cassette and eight-track releases of the album.
Track listing
All songs written by Dolly Parton unless otherwise noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Recording date | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Bargain Store" | December 4, 1974 | 2:44 | |
| 2. | "Kentucky Gambler" | May 23, 1973 | 2:40 | |
| 3. | "When I'm Gone" | December 11, 1974 | 2:16 | |
| 4. | "The Only Hand You'll Need to Hold" | December 4, 1974 | 2:12 | |
| 5. | "On My Mind Again" | Porter Wagoner | December 11, 1974 | 2:51 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Recording date | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "I Want to Be What You Need" | December 9, 1974 | 2:42 | |
| 7. | "Love to Remember" | December 11, 1974 | 2:33 | |
| 8. | "You’ll Always Be Special to Me" | Merle Haggard | December 11, 1974 | 2:23 |
| 9. | "He Would Know" | December 9, 1974 | 2:34 | |
| 10. | "I’ll Never Forget" | December 11, 1974 | 2:47 |
Charts
| Chart (1975) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[4] | 9 |
| US Cashbox Country Albums[5] | 4 |
