by Mildred Europa Taylor, Face2FaceAfrica.com
“IWill Always Love You,” released in 1974, became Whitney Houston’s iconic, chart-topping song. However, the song was originally written and performed by Dolly Parton.
She composed the track on a single afternoon in 1973, alongside “Jolene”. Parton, who passed away on Tuesday, August 25, first released the emotional classic eight years after secretly marrying Carl Dean in Ringgold, Georgia.
Her decision to part ways with country musician Porter Wagoner served as the creative catalyst for the tune. The song became so popular that Elvis Presley loved it and intended to record it for himself.
“I got the word that he was going to record it, and I was so excited,” Parton said to CMT in 2006. “I told everybody I knew, ‘Elvis is going to record my song. You’re not going to believe who’s recording my song.’”
His manager, Colonel Tom Parker, however, demanded half of the publishing rights if Presley released his own version. Parton said no to that offer.
“I cried all night,” she told CMT. “I mean, it was like the worst thing. People were saying, ‘You’re nuts. It’s Elvis Presley. Hell, I’d give him all of it.’ I said, ‘I can’t.’ I always wondered what it would sound like. I know he would have killed it.”
Parton continued to protect the song throughout her music career. She made it a No. 1 hit twice — once when it was initially released and then when she re-recorded it in 1982.
However, when Houston requested permission to sing the song, Parton knew no one could have done it better than her.
“Whitney, when she did it, she just took it worldwide and made it the most special song in the whole world for a long period of time,” Parton told CBS News in 1992. “That song won’t let me go, and it just lived on.”
Houston’s version was reportedly at No.1 for 14 weeks starting at the end of November 1992.
But Houston nearly didn’t record it. Reports said the singer was set to perform a totally different song for the 1992 movie “The Bodyguard.”
Maureen Crowe, the music supervisor of the film, told The Post in 2022, “She [Houston] was supposed to sing ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,’”
“But when you slow that song down, it’s like a dirge. And it had been covered for ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ [by Paul Young in 1991], and it was climbing the charts as we were shooting ‘The Bodyguard.’ So we couldn’t use that song because it would just seem like we ripped it off from ‘Fried Green Tomatoes.’”
Crowe decided to pitch “I Will Always Love You” to producer and star Kevin Costner. He loved it.
Houston’s sister-in-law, Pat Houston, expressed her sadness at Parton’s passing on Tuesday.
“I am grateful that Whitney’s voice helped carry one of Dolly’s timeless songs into the hearts of millions,” Pat Houston said to Channel 2 Action News. “May she rest in Peace knowing her music and her heart will live on forever.”
Parton made $10 million in royalties from Houston’s cover, as reported by Forbes.
Following Houston’s death in 2012, Parton’s song was played during the funeral, and that got the 80-year-old emotional.
“When they lifted her coffin up at that funeral, and they went into that song, I mean I just busted out in tears. It was just like somebody just stuck me in the heart with a knife. It was just so overwhelming knowing that was my song, my words. It was so final. It was her song. It was such a mixture of emotions,” Parton said. “I think both of us will always be … that song will be tagged to both of us forever.”
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