Rainbow (Dolly Parton album)

Rainbow was a Dolly Parton album from 1987, her first after switching labels to CBS Records, after nearly two decades with RCA. The original plan was for Parton to alternate between releasing pop and country albums (rather than trying to combine the two styles on each album), but due to Rainbow's poor sales and tepid critical reception, the plan was quickly abandoned, and Parton more or less focussed on recording country material for the remainder of her association with CBS.

The album was among Parton's lowest charting albums to that point. It stalled at 153 on the U.S. pop albums charts and barely cracked the top twenty on the country albums charts; its first single, "The River Unbroken" missed the country top 40 entirely, stalling at # 63, and did not make the pop charts; its second single, "I Know You by Heart", a duet with Smokey Robinson, did not chart at all.

Rainbow's release coincided with the launch of Parton's ill-fated 1987-88 variety show, Dolly, and much of the music on the album was highlighted on the show.