Dolly Parton made history with her song, “I Will Always Love You,” after Whitney Houston recorded it for the Bodyguard soundtrack. The song broke a record in 1992 for the number of weeks a song stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 14 weeks, becoming one of the best-selling songs of all time. The iconic tune has also been recorded by numerous other artists, including Kristin Chenoweth, LeAnn Rimes, Kenny Rogers, Beyoncé and more — but there are two artists the Country Music Hall of Fame member would love to hear put their spin on the soaring tune.
“Wouldn’t you love to hear Céline Dion sing ‘I Will Always Love You?'” Dolly reflected to People. “Would that not be great? Or Barbra Streisand? And I think I would love to hear either one of them sing ‘Jolene.'”
“Jolene” has been recorded over 400 times, and is the song Dolly says she is known for the most. But surprisingly, “Jolene” has never been a No. 1 hit, for anyone, including Dolly.
“That’s the most recorded song I’ve ever written, but nobody’s ever really had a huge hit on it,” Dolly shared. “And of course, Miley [Cyrus] sings it but nobody’s ever had it out as a single, so I would love to have somebody do that.”
“Jolene” might be the most-recorded song, but it’s “I Will Always Love You” that has made her the most money, thanks in part to her refusing to give away even part of her publishing to Elvis Presley, in exchange for him recording the song.
“I was so excited that he was going to do it,” Dolly recalled on a recent episode of Reba McEntire‘s new podcast, Living and Learning with Reba McEntire (via Sounds Like Nashville). “And the night before the session, Colonel Tom called me and said, ‘You know, we don’t record anything with Elvis unless we have the publishing, or at least half the publishing.’ I said, ‘Well, that throws a new light on this, because I can’t give you half the publishing. I’m gonna leave that to my family.’
“I said, ‘I can’t do that,’” she continued. “And he said, ‘Well, then we can’t do it.’ And I cried all night. ‘Cause I thought, ‘Oh, I just pictured Elvis singing it.’ And I know that Elvis loved it. And I know it wasn’t him, but it’s true. I said ‘no.’”
