A perfect example of what Dolly has going on when it comes to business
can be found in the story of her hit song "I Will Always Love You"
which none other than the King of Rock & Roll himself, Elvis Presley once wanted to record.
You had the moxie, not to mention the good business sense,
to, for example, when you wrote-- I'll Always Love You and Elvis Presley was going to record it,
and suddenly you said, "Whoa, no." Tell me about that.
Well, actually, Elvis loved the song. That was when he and Priscilla were
havin' their problems-- which, I met her recently, and she told me that Elvis loved
that song and he had s-- sung that to her on the day of their divorce. She-- he said she--
he kinda leaned in and sang a little bit of "I Will Always Love You".
And so she told me how much that he loved that song, 'cause-- this was recently. We
were t-- doin' some business. But durin' that time, it's no fault of Elvis. You know-- he loved
the song. But Tom Parker was-- in defense of Tom Parker, too-- Colonel Tom--his manager-- you know,
he made some wise decisions, evidently. (LAUGH) So, he knew what he was doin'.
But that was-- goes back to that other thing, 'cause Elvis was ready to record it. I had told my
friends and people that he was recordin' it. And they were in town to do the recording. They'd
invited me down to the session. And Colonel Tom Parker called me the day before and says,
"Now, you do know that Elvis is recordin' your song. And you do know that Elvis don't record
anything that he don't publish or at least get half the publishin' on." I said, "Really?"
Which is to say he would have the rights to the song.
He would have the rights. At least half-- half of the-- the s-- rights to the publishing of the
song. I said, "I can't do that. This song's already been a hit with me. And this is in
my publishing company. And obviously this is gonna be one of my most important copyrights.
And I can't give you half the publishing,
'cause that's stuff that I'm leavin' for my family." And-- he said, "Well then we can't record
the song." And I was just heartbroken. I said, "Well, I'm really sorry, but I can't do that."
Well, Dolly Parton--
So, I didn't.
--that took guts.
Well, it didn't to me. It seemed to be the thing to do. I-- it hurt me,
because I was so disappointed I was gonna have to tell my friends Elvis didn't record it.
And-- but I just knew that that was not right and that that was not-- if it hadda been maybe--
if I didn't have my own publishing company, had the song not already been a hit, it mighta been
different. But I couldn't give somebody half of a song that had already been number one
and that was-- you know, was evident-- had already proved itself. So--
Well, you had some redemption. Whitney Houston then--
Well, yes--
--many years later--
-- (LAUGH) that's true. When Whitney recorded, I was like, "Oh, good, 'cause now I own 100%
of the publishin', 100% of the writing," and I did really well with that. But I
didn't blame Elvis and I didn't blame Colonel Tom
either. I-- it was a decision I had to make at the time, and I'm glad I did.
But when Whitney Houston recorded it, which made it a worldwide hit all over again, n-- not only
made you a lotta money-- that's true-- but also y-- as you yourself said, you said, "Hey, here
it comes again." And that really was a great song. My question is, Whitney Houston-- African-American
heritage, you from the mountains of east Tennessee, what went through your mind when
it was Whitney Houston who brought the song back and made it again such a sensational bestseller?
Well, it was overwhelming. The way she did it, David Foster, who arranged it p-- and produced it,
and Kevin Costner, who's the one that just, you know, wanted to do the song in-- in the movie--
but when I heard her sing it-- of course, I always loved her singin' anyway-- I mean,
what a voice she had. I mean, at that time, nobody could out-sing her. But when
I heard it, I-- my heart just stopped. I just couldn't believe that (LAUGH) my little song,
my little simple song that was written straight from my heart, you know, about-- a
subject-- that we all know and relate to one way or another, whether it's someone has died or kids
goin' off to school, people relate to that song in so many ways. But anyway, when I heard her
sing it, I could not believe it. I almost-- I was drivin' at that time from my office in
Nashville to my house in Brentwood. And I heard it when she started singing that a cappella,
I thought, "Well, th--" it-- you know, it just-- I thought, "What is--" (LAUGH) you know,
"If I should stay"-- and it-- it took a minute to realize. And then when-- when it went into the--
with the music part where she's singin' (SINGING) "I," I honestly thought I was
gonna have a heart attack. (LAUGH) It was one of the most overwhelming things.
The way she did it was spectacular. And I could never have done it like that myself.
But-- it made me just think, "Well, I guess if you got a good song, it can be arranged and produced
wi-- in almost any style." So-- but that's when I realized that the song was really important,
'cause-- and could be done any way. It was-- it was overwhelming. People say, "Well,
that's Whitney's song." I said, "That's fine. You can give her the credit. I just want the cash.
So, send that check on to me." (LAUGH) But it was her song. The way that she did that to make
that such a worldwide hit, mine woulda never have done that. But-- since then,
people have done it ins-- you know, as instrumentals, as duets and all of that. So,
it's just one of those simple little songs that says nothing and yet everything. It's very simple.
Dolly Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" in 1973 as a goodbye song to Porter
Wagoner when she decided to leave his show after co-hosting for seven years.