Dolly Parton quickly peaks to No.1 with her country ballad “I Will Always Love You” in 1974
Released on June 6, the song peaked to No.1 at the U.S Country Charts on June 8
Dolly Parton quickly peaks to No.1 with her country ballad “I Will Always Love You” in 1974
Released on June 6, 1974, the country ballad “I Will Always Love You” remains Dolly Parton’s signature song. Parton wrote the song as a farewell to her one-time partner and mentor of seven years, Porter Wagoner, following her decision to pursue a solo career. Although Parton found much success with the song, many people are unaware of its origin; during an interview, Parton’s manager Danny Nozel said that “one thing we found out from American Idol is that most people don’t know that Dolly Parton wrote it”. The song quickly peaked to No.1 at the U.S country chart on June 8, 1974, and caught the attention of Elvis Presley who wanted to cover it. But Parton refused it after Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that it was standard procedure for the songwriter to sign over half of the publishing rights to any song Elvis recorded. In 1992 the song met it’s most famous version through Whitney Houston when the singer recorded it for the soundtrack of the movie “The Bodyguard”. Houston’s version spent 14 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart making it one of the best-selling singles of all time and re-entered the charts in 2012 after her death, making it the second single ever to reach the top three on the Billboard Hot 100 in separate chart runs.
Watch Dolly Parton performing “I Will Always Love You” in 1974 at the The Porter Wagoner Show
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