I Will Always Love You Dolly Parton: She Said No to Elvis
Dolly Parton wrote I Will Always Love You as a goodbye letter, not a love song.
She sang it to the man who had made her a star.
She was already on her way out the door of his show.
He didn't hear it as a rejection.
He heard it as her best song yet and kept producing her records for two more years anyway.
The single hit number one on the country chart in 1974.
It did it again in 1982, with a second recording of the same song.
This is the chart-verified story of I Will Always Love You Dolly Parton recorded three weeks after Jolene.
It's also the story of the fortune that recording built almost twenty years later.
Dolly Parton, publicity photo, March 1977.
Image credit: Publicity photo by RCA Records, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Written the Same Summer as Jolene, for the Opposite Reason
Dolly Parton spent seven years as the featured singer on The Porter Wagoner Show.
She eventually decided to leave and build a solo career.
Wagoner had given her the platform that made her a name in country music.
Leaving him behind, even to grow, felt like it needed its own explanation.
So she wrote him one, in song form, rather than just walking out.
Two Songs at the Same Studio, Three Weeks Apart
Parton recorded Jolene at RCA Studio B in Nashville on May 22, 1973.
She returned to the same room on June 12, 1973, and recorded I Will Always Love You.
Jolene is tense and pleading, built around a minor-key hook aimed at a rival.
I Will Always Love You is the opposite kind of record entirely.
It's calm, plain-spoken, and addressed directly to one person leaving her life.
Parton has said the lyrics came quickly once she sat down with the idea.
"I always felt that it was one of the best things I had ever written," Parton has said.
Fans who search I Will Always Love You Dolly Parton today often ask one thing.
Did it really come together in one sitting?
Wagoner Kept Producing Her Anyway
Parton announced her departure from the show in 1974.
She and Wagoner performed one last duet together as a send-off rather than a clean break.
He kept producing her solo albums for two more years, through 1976's All I Can Do.
Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, publicity photo, 1969.
Image credit: Moeller Talent, Inc. Nashville, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
That overlap is easy to miss in short retellings of the split.
It shows the farewell in the song was real.
But the working relationship didn't end the day she recorded it.
I Will Always Love You Dolly Parton Took to Number One Twice
RCA released I Will Always Love You as a single in March 1974.
This site's own weekly country chart data confirms it reached number one.
That happened for the week of June 8, 1974, one week at the top.
Parton rerecorded the song for the 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
That version hit number one on the country chart a second time.
Two different recordings of the same song, both chart-toppers, eight years apart.
The Pop Chart Never Saw It Coming
Jolene, recorded three weeks earlier, crossed over to the pop charts.
It peaked at number 60 on the Hot 100 that same year.
I Will Always Love You didn't cross over at all in 1974.
It doesn't appear anywhere in this site's Hot 100 weekly or year-end data for that year.
It stayed a country record, full stop, until a much bigger pop moment arrived almost two decades later.
| Year | Recording | Chart | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Original single | Billboard Hot Country Singles | #1, one week |
| 1982 | Rerecording for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas | Billboard Hot Country Singles | #1 |
| 1992 | Whitney Houston cover, The Bodyguard | Billboard Hot 100 | #1, 14 weeks |
Curious how that lone 1974 week at the top compares to other country chart runs of the decade?
The Random 70s Song Generator pulls from the same year-end pool this single climbed.
The song I Will Always Love You Dolly Parton took to number one twice still sits in that same pool.
Half a century later.
The Night Dolly Parton Said No to Elvis Presley
The song's biggest what-if moment came right after it first hit number one.
Elvis Presley heard it and wanted to record his own version.
His manager, Colonel Tom Parker, contacted Parton with the terms.
Standard Practice, Except Parton Said No
Parker told her it was standard procedure for songwriters.
Anyone whose song Elvis recorded was expected to sign over half the publishing rights.
Every other writer in that position had reportedly agreed to the same deal.
An Elvis recording all but guaranteed a hit.
Parton had already lost control of material earlier in her career.
She wasn't willing to do it again.
She turned the offer down the night before the session was scheduled.
Elvis never recorded I Will Always Love You.
The Payoff Came Almost Twenty Years Later
Search "I Will Always Love You Dolly Parton" today.
That decision barely gets a footnote next to what came after it.
Parton later put it plainly: "I made enough money to buy Graceland" once Whitney Houston's version took off.
She meant it as a joke about scale, not a literal claim.
But the math behind it wasn't a joke at all.
Read the full split, and the lawsuit that followed it, on the Dolly Parton artist page.
Whitney Houston Turned It Into History
The Mood Song Matcher tags the original as nostalgic and heartfelt.
Whitney Houston's version amplified that mood into something enormous.
Houston recorded the song for 1992's The Bodyguard, the film she starred in opposite Kevin Costner.
Her version didn't just cover the song. It reset what a cover version could do commercially.
Most people who search I Will Always Love You Dolly Parton today land on Houston's version first.
Not the original.
The Numbers Behind the Record
- 14 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, a then-record run for any single.
- Number one in 34 countries.
- More than 24 million copies sold worldwide, the best-selling single of all time by a female solo artist.
- Two Grammy Awards in 1994, including Record of the Year.
Every dollar and every award on that list traces back to one song.
Parton wrote it as a three-minute goodbye in a Nashville studio in 1973.
She kept full ownership of the song.
That's the same ownership she refused to trade away for an Elvis Presley recording nearly two decades earlier.
That single decision is why the songwriting credit, and the royalties behind it, stayed hers alone.
Few songs on Music of the 70s connect a quiet 1973 breakup to a chart record this big.
That record still hasn't been broken by many singles since.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Dolly Parton write I Will Always Love You?
Dolly Parton wrote I Will Always Love You in 1973.
It was a farewell to Porter Wagoner, the country star who featured her for seven years.
She was leaving to build a solo career and wanted a graceful goodbye instead of a clean break.
She recorded it at RCA Studio B in Nashville on June 12, 1973.
That was three weeks after she recorded Jolene at the same studio.
Did I Will Always Love You reach number one twice?
Yes, Dolly Parton took I Will Always Love You to number one on Billboard's country chart twice.
She did it with two different recordings of the same song.
The original hit number one in June 1974.
She rerecorded it for the 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
That version reached number one on the country chart.
Reaching number one twice with the same song is a rare feat.
Is it true Elvis Presley wanted to record I Will Always Love You?
Elvis Presley did want to record I Will Always Love You after it hit number one in 1974.
His manager, Colonel Tom Parker, contacted Dolly Parton about the terms.
It was standard practice for songwriters to sign over half the publishing rights on any song Elvis recorded.
Parton refused the night before the scheduled session, so Elvis never recorded it.
How did Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You do on the charts?
Whitney Houston's 1992 cover for The Bodyguard soundtrack spent 14 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
That was a then-record run, and the song also topped the charts in 34 countries.
It sold more than 24 million copies worldwide, the best-selling single of all time by a female solo artist.
It also won the 1994 Grammy for Record of the Year.
Did I Will Always Love You cross over to the pop charts in 1974?
I Will Always Love You did not cross over to the pop charts in 1974.
Jolene, recorded three weeks earlier, reached number 60 on the Hot 100 that same year.
It does not appear anywhere in this site's Billboard Hot 100 weekly or year-end data for 1974.
The song stayed a country-only hit until Whitney Houston's pop cover arrived nearly two decades later.
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