Most songwriters would have jumped at the chance. Elvis Presley wanted to sing their song, and all they had to do was say yes.
Dolly Parton said no. And she didn’t feel good about it.
To understand why, you have to go back to the song itself. Dolly, the country singer and songwriter, spent years singing duets with country star Porter Wagoner on his TV show. When she was ready to go out on her own, she wrote a song about leaving. It was the song that finally persuaded Porter to let her go.
She recorded it on June 12, 1973, at RCA Studio B in Nashville. That’s the same RCA studio where Elvis cut many of his own records. The song came out in March 1974, and by June it was No. 1 on the country charts.
Here’s Dolly singing it back in 1974, the year it took off.
Dolly Parton sings her song in 1974
The song was “I Will Always Love You.”
When Dolly’s record hit No. 1, Elvis let it be known he wanted to record it. Dolly was excited. “You know, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God… Elvis Presley.’ And other people were saying, ‘You’re nuts. It’s Elvis Presley.'”
Then came the catch. Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her it was standard for the songwriter to sign over half of the publishing rights on any song Elvis recorded. That was simply how his deals worked.
Dolly refused.
“I said, ‘I can’t do that. Something in my heart says, Don’t do that.’ And I just didn’t do it.”
People around her told her she was crazy. And saying no to Elvis hurt her, too. “I said, ‘I’m really sorry,’ and I cried all night. I mean, it was like the worst thing.”
Dolly talked about that decision herself on Howard Stern’s show, and it’s worth hearing it in her own voice.
Dolly explains why she said no to Elvis
So where’s the last laugh? It took almost 20 years to arrive.
In 1992, Whitney Houston recorded “I Will Always Love You” for the movie “The Bodyguard.” Actor Kevin Costner suggested she record it. Whitney’s version spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a record at the time, and it was the world’s best-selling single of 1992. It became her signature song and sold upwards of 20 million copies.
And Dolly still owned her publishing.
Her decision back in 1974 is credited with earning her many millions of dollars from that one song. And Dolly had fun with it. She joked that she made enough money from Whitney’s version to buy Graceland, Elvis’s own home.
There’s a sweet connection here, too. Whitney had met Elvis herself as a little girl, years before she made Dolly’s song a worldwide hit.
If you’ve somehow never seen it, or haven’t watched it in years, this is the version that made Dolly’s song famous all over the world.
Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” music video
Dolly passed away in August at 80. Of all the songs she wrote, this was the one Elvis wanted, and the one she decided to keep for herself.