Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette... 3 veritable queens of country team up on this classic 1993 release. They alternate lead vocals, and add their tight sweet harmonies, on tunes like: It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels -- on which they're joined by Kitty Wells!... Lovesick Blues -- which features Patsy Cline!... Let Her Fly... Linda Ronstadt's Silver Threads and Golden Needles... the gospel tune Wings of a Dove... and I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven, recorded a few years before Tammy Wynette's death. We confess that somehow we missed this when if first came out; but, no matter, it's still as great now as it was back then.

For the 1952 Kitty Wells recording, see It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.

Honky Tonk Angels is a 1993 Columbia Records album historically teaming country legends Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette.

Honky Tonk Angels was produced by Parton and Steve Buckingham. The album had been a long-rumored project between the country singers for over a decade and received much publicity and acclaim upon its release, although its only single release, a remake of the longtime country female vocalist staple "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", barely dented the charts. Record sales, however, placed the album at #6 on Billboards country album chart and #42 on Billboard 200, the pop album chart becoming Wynette's second-highest ranking album on the pop chart and Lynn's highest on the pop chart until her 2005 album Van Lear Rose.

The album features many country standards, including "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" (which features a guest vocal appearance by the song's originator and the original country queen, Kitty Wells), "Wings of a Dove" (a 1960 hit for Ferlin Husky), "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know" (a 1953 hit for The Davis Sisters (country) aka Skeeter Davis and Betty Jack Davis), "Put it Off Until Tomorrow" (a 1966 Bill Phillips hit that was Parton's first success as a songwriter), "Lovesick Blues" (a pop standard known for Hank Williams' 1949 rendition; here the trio sings along with a vintage recording of the song by Patsy Cline), and "I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven", Tex Ritter's 1962 classic that features new spoken dialogue.

The original songs by Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette appear to be solo performances by each of them with harmony vocals by Parton and "Sittin' on the Front Porch Swing" appears to be a Parton solo. The recording features liner notes written by Ralph Emery.

Personnel

*Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette: Lead, Backing & Harmony Vocals

*Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells: Guest Vocals

*Drums: Eddie Bayers, Buddy Harman

*Percussion: Farrell Moris

*Bass: Roy Huskey, Jr., Bob Moore, Tom Robb

*Piano: Floyd Cramer, Hargus "Pig" Robbins

*Guitars: Hank Garland, Steve Gibson, Grady Martin, Weldon Myrick, Billy Sanford, Bruce Watkins

*Pedal Steel: Jimmy Day, Weldon Myrick

*Mandolin: Adam Steffey

*Tic-Tac: Harold Bradley, Hank Garland, Steve Gibson

*Harp: Cindy Reynolds Wyatt

*Backing vocals: Richard Dennison, Louis Dean Nunley

Production

*Produced By Owen Bradley, Steve Buckingham & Dolly Parton

*Engineers: Marshall Morgan, Gary Paczosa, Alan Schulman, Toby Seay

*Assistant Engineers: Jason Lehring, Ed Simonton

*Digital Editing: Don Cobb

*Mastering: Denny Purcell

Chart performance

This text has been derived from Honky Tonk Angels on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0