The Bargain Store

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
Studio album by Dolly Parton
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
Love Is Like a Butterfly (1974) The Bargain Store (1975) Best of Dolly Parton (1975)
Singles from The Bargain Store
"The Bargain Store" Released: January 13, 1975

Professional ratings

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.

Side one

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

Side two

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 performance for The Bargain Store

Chart (1975)	Peak position
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[4]	9
US Cashbox Country Albums[5]	4