Owepar Entertainment, in cooperation with Sony/Legacy, have announced the release of The RCA Years by Randy Parton, the late brother of Dolly Parton. Randy, who passed away in 2021, was featured on the 2024 Dolly Parton & Family release, Smoky Mountain DNA through a previously unreleased archival recording.
The RCA Years was released in conjunction with Randy birthday on December 15th, and is the first authorized and fully remastered collection of the singer’s classics RCA singles from the 1970s and 80s.
Between 1975 and 1983, RCA released nine singles by Parton. The RCA Years features 39 tracks, including all of Parton’s released singles, several never before released recordings, alternative versions, and previously unreleased alternative mono and stereo mixes, all remastered in hi-res from the original masters.
Born in 1953, the eighth of 12 Parton children, Randy followed music at early age. By 1970, his older sister Dolly was well into her musical career, and Randy began his professional career as a bass player for a local, East Tennessee Rhythm & Blues band. Three years later, he moved to Nashville and secured a job as bass player in Opry star Jean Shepard’s band while sharpening his talents as singer and entertainer in Nashville’s nightclub scene.
In 1974, he made his first professional recordings as a solo artist at Fireside Studio, the studio owned by his sister Dolly, his uncle Louis Owens, and Country artist Porter Wagoner. Those early recordings eventually led to a contract with RCA Records, and in 1975, the label released his first single, “Tennessee Born.”
Randy’s talent impressed Los Angeles-based producer and composer Mike Post. After producing Dolly’s 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs album in 1981, Post began working with the younger Parton. Their collaboration led to Randy’s first chart hit, “Hold Me Like You Never Had Me.” Over the next year, Parton and Post scored three more hit singles: “Shot Full of Love, ”Don’t Cry Baby,” and “Oh, No.”
With the opening of Dollywood in 1986, Randy Parton returned to East Tennessee to headline shows in the park. Over the next three decades he became a performer in the Smoky Mountain area music scene until his death in 2021 at the age of 67.
Randy Parton – The RCA Years is a collection of classic singles,but it’s also a peak into the development of Randy’s talent and a tribute to an often overlooked artist.
