The fabulous Dolly Parton!
Some people may be a little peeved if a song they wrote became a smash hit for someone else, but not Dolly Parton. Her song “I Will Always Love You” — while still a no. 1 for the country singer — became a megahit after Whitney Houston covered it in 1992 for the soundtrack to the movie The Bodyguard.
Parton tells Katie Couric in a recent interview she didn’t even know for certain Houston was going to cut it. “Kevin Costner had asked for that song. But I had never heard if they were gonna do it … I was drivin’ home one day, and it came on the radio,” she recalls, noting she almost ran off the road out of shock.
Her reaction? Impressed.
“And then, when she went into that, ‘I will always love you,’ ooh, it was one of the most overwhelming feelings I’ve ever had in my life,” Parton says.
The legend says she doesn’t mind so much when people associate the song with the R&B star. In true Parton fashion, she handles it with a sense of humor and grace, saying matter-of-factly: “Well, a lot of people say that’s Whitney’s song, and I always say, ‘That’s fine, she can have the credit, I just want my cash.’”
Parton is currently on her first long-run tour in decades and recently released a new record called Pure & Simple, which she says gets back to her roots. “I feel like these songs have a pure, tender side, and we didn’t go overboard with arrangements,” she says of the record.
Always keeping busy with multiple projects, Parton is releasing a new Christmas film this year called Christmas of Many Colors. It follows the success of her TV movie based on her life and song by the same name, Coat of Many Colors.
By Laura McClellan
http://tasteofcountry.com/dolly-parton-whitney-houston-i-will-always-love-you-credit/
[Editor’s note: Oh, if only I could write a song like “I Will Always Love You!”]