Those Were the Days

Those Were the Days is the forty-first solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on October 11, 2005, by Sugar Hill Records and Blue Eye Records. The album is a collection of covers of 1960s and 1970s folk and pop songs performed in a bluegrass style, some featuring the artists who originally recorded them. Parton supported the album with The Vintage Tour from August through December 2005. Background The album was original titled Blue Smoke and expected to be released in the first half of 2005. It was to feature a few original songs in addition to covers of 1960s and 1970s folk and pop songs. Parton had performed several tracks intended for the album on the Hello, I'm Dolly Tour in 2004, including "Blue Smoke", "I Dreamed About Elvis", "Me and Bobby McGee", and "Imagine". Parton confirmed to the Knoxville News-Sentinel that guest performers on the album would include folk legends Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell. Keith Urban was confirmed to have recorded a duet with Parton for the album in October 2004 by Country Now. Sugar Hill Records confirmed in January 2005 that no release date had been set for the album, and the completed project had not yet been submitted to the label for release. In March 2005, Steve Buckingham, Parton's longtime producer, confirmed to Dollymania that she had completed several tracks for the album, but it was unfinished and had been put on hold while Parton began composing songs for 9 to 5: The Musical. Joe Nichols told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in May 2005 that he had recorded "If I Were a Carpenter" with Parton for her next album. While speaking at a CMA Music Festival press conference in June 2005, Parton announced that she had been in the studio finishing up her next album and expected it to be released in October. She also stated that its title had changed from Blue Smoke to Those Were the Days and that she was in the preliminary stages of planning a tour for the fall of 2005. Parton also confirmed that Keith Urban had recorded "Twelfth of Never" with her for the album and that Tommy James joined her for "Crimson and Clover". In a June 2005 article for the New York Post, gossip columnist Liz Smith published a list of guest artists for the album including Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan, Keith Urban, Joni Mitchell, Sean Lennon, Yusef Islam, David Foster and Joe Nichols.