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I Will Always Love You
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"I Will Always Love You" is a song released by American country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton (1974) and by American singer Whitney Houston (1992). Houston's version of the song became one of the best-selling singles of all time, and the best selling single ever by a female artist.
y Parton wrote the song in 1973 and it was released a year later, having been produced by Bob Ferguson.
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Encyclopedia
"I Will Always Love You" is a song released by American country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton (1974) and by American singer Whitney Houston (1992). Houston's version of the song became one of the best-selling singles of all time, and the best selling single ever by a female artist.
Dolly Parton version
Dolly Parton wrote the song in 1973 and it was released a year later, having been produced by Bob Ferguson. She has told numerous interviewers over the years that she wrote it for her one-time partner and mentor Porter Wagoner, with whom she was having a business splitting at the time. Recorded on June 17 1973 in RCA's Studio "B" in Nashville, the song was included on Parton's album Jolene, and was released as a follow-up single, after the Country chart-topping success of the title track, in April 1974 (see 1974 in music). The single reached number one on the Billboard Country Singles chart a month later, but had just modest success on the pop charts. The lyrics express a bittersweet and poignant ode to an ex-lover, and are delivered with Parton's distinctive twang.
Parton re-recorded the song in 1982 (see 1982 in music) to include it on the soundtrack to the film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Her 1982 version also reached number one on the US Country Chart, marking the first time the same song reached number one on the country charts twice by the same artist. The 1982 version also saw limited crossover pop success, reaching number fifty-three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number seventeen on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Parton had success with the song again in 1995 in a duet with Vince Gill. This time the song peaked at No. 15 in December of that year, making it the third time the song was a hit for Parton, albeit in duet form this time. In 2003, CMT ranked it #16 on their 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music. In 2004, CMT ranked it #1 on their 100 Greatest Country Love Songs.
The most recent release of the song appears on her 2008 album Backwoods Barbie, which features a live version an exclusive bonus track on the iTunes version of the release.
Elvis Presley wished to record the song, but Parton refused to share writing credits (as was the case with many songs EP performed) with The King.
Chart positions
| Chart (1974) | Peak
position |
|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks | 1 | | Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 4 | | Chart (1982) | Peak
position |
|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks | 1 | | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 53 | | U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | 17 | | Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1 | | Canadian RPM Top Singles | 8 | | Chart (1995) | Peak
position |
|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks | 15 | | Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 22 |
Whitney Houston version
In 1991 (see 1992 in music), singer Whitney Houston recorded the song for the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, her film debut. Houston was originally to record Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" as the lead single from The Bodyguard. However, when it was discovered the song was to be used for Fried Green Tomatoes, Houston requested a different song and her co-star Kevin Costner brought her Linda Ronstadt's 1975 version of "I Will Always Love You" from her album Prisoner in Disguise. Houston re-arranged the song as a soul ballad. Her record company did not feel a song with an a cappella introduction would be as successful; however, Houston and Costner insisted to maintain an a cappella intro.
Houston's version was a massive worldwide success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. It became a regular on countdown lists: appearing at number eight on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the Past 25 Years"; number four on "VH1 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s" and number one on VH1's "100 Greatest Love Songs".
The song also lists at #68 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time.
Music video
The single's video, credited to Alan Smithee, begins with the performance of the song Houston gives at the end of The Bodyguard. The video then cuts to Houston in a dark blue suit sitting in an empty theater with the spotlight shining on her, singing of her love. The video is intercut with scenes from The Bodyguard.
Chart performances
The single spent fourteen weeks at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, which at the time was a record for her single. The single became Houston's longest run at number one, beating her previous record of three weeks with 1986s, "Greatest Love of All." It is also the longest running number one single from a soundtrack album.
The single debuted at number forty on the Hot 100 in the U.S., and became Houston's tenth number one hit a mere two weeks later. It also dominated various other Billboard charts, spending fourteen weeks at the top of Billboard's singles sales chart (the most for a female artist), and eleven weeks at number one on its radio airplay chart. The song also stayed at number one for five weeks on the Adult Contemporary Chart and for eleven weeks on the R&B chart becoming the longest running #1 on the R&B charts at the time, and remained in the Top 40 for twenty-four weeks. It became Arista Records' biggest hit. The song was #1 on the Hot 100, Adult Contemporary, and R&B chart simulateously for a record five weeks.
Houston's single sold approximately 400,000 copies in its second week of release, making it the best-selling song in a single week (taking the record from Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You"). It broke its own record in the following three weeks, peaking at 632,000 copies in the week ending December 19 (the week it broke its own record for most copies sold in a single week for any song). It went on to sell over five million copies in the U.S. and another six million worldwide, making it the third best-selling single in the world. It remains the biggest selling single by a female artist and the biggest selling non-charity single.
Houston's single became an unbelievable massive international success like no other song in music history, hitting #1 in the United Kingdom, ten weeks; and Australia's ARIA Singles chart for ten weeks. It also hit pole position in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, France, Denmark, The Netherlands,New Zealand and every other European, South American, and African countries worldwide. It is the only single to have ever topped both the US and Australian charts for at least ten weeks.
The song stayed at number one in the United States throughout January and February in 1993, making it the first time Billboard didn't rank a new number one single until March of the new year. Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was also ranked as the top US single of 1993 by Billboard magazine. Similarly, in the UK, Houston's version was ranked the number one single of 1992, and then made the countdown again in 1993 where it was ranked number nine, marking the first time any artist or group had the same single ranked in the Top 10 of the year-end review two years in a row. Houston's soundtrack album for The Bodyguard was number-one for twenty weeks, and it became the best-selling soundtrack of all time. The album has been certified diamond in the U.S. for sales of over 17 million, and has sold 42 million copies total worldwide to date.
Awards
- Grammy Awards
- Record of the Year
- Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
- American Music Awards
- Favorite Pop/Rock Female Single
- Favorite R&B/Soul Female Single
- Billboard Music Awards
- Top Selling Single of the Year
- Top Hot 100 Single of the Year
- Top R&B Selling Single of the Year
- Top R&B Single
- World Music Awards
- World's #1 Single of 1993
- MTV Movie Awards
- People's Choice Awards
- Favorite Female Music Video
- Soul Train Music Awards
Remixes
- I Will Always Love You [Hex Rector Mix] 4:50
- I Will Always Love You [Hex Hector Radio Remix] 4:52
- I Will Always Love You [Hex Hector 12 Inch] 9:51
Certifications
| Country | Certification | Date | Sales certified |
|---|
| Austria | Gold | March 1, 1993 | 15,000 | | France | Gold | 1993 | 250,000 | | Germany | Platinum | 1993 | 300,000 | | Netherlands | Platinum | 1992 | 60,000 | | Sweden | Platinum | March 26, 1993 | 20,000 | | UK | 2 x Platinum | January 1, 1993 | 1,300,000 | | U.S. | 4 x Platinum | January 12, 1993 | 4,000,000 | |
Charts
Controversy
After Houston's cover of the song became a hit, the tabloid press began reporting on a 'feud' between the two performers, stemming from Parton's allegedly reneging on an agreement that she would not perform the song for a number of months while Houston's version was on the charts, so as not to compete with the more recent cover. However, both Houston and Parton have dispelled any rumours, speaking glowingly of one another in interviews , Houston praising Parton for writing a beautiful song, and Parton thanking Houston for bringing her song to a wider audience, and in the process making her a great deal of money in royalties. Dolly Parton also gave a live interview, confirming this.
Later covers
The popularity of Houston's version revitalized interest in the song, thus resulting in more covers by acts such as LeAnn Rimes, Kenny G, Tamia, James Galway, and John Tesh to name a few. It has also been released by Roger Whittaker and UK Pop Idol finalist Rik Waller and Bulgarian Music Idol winner Nevena Tsoneva. Kelli Glover covered the song in the first American Idol season and Tamyra Gray also sang it live on the TV show Boston Public.
Parton rerecorded the song in 1995 with Vince Gill. The Gill duet reached number fifteen on the country charts, becoming one of Parton's few chart hits during the 1990s. The Parton/Gill duet won the 1995 Country Music Association award for Collaboration of the Year, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Leona Lewis sang this song on the 3rd season of the UK X Factor show.
Emily Williams from Young Divas also covered this song in 2006. It is on their debut album.
The Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins also recorded an Italian version of this song.
Punk rock cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes performed this song on a tribute album to Dolly Parton.
Dutch country singer Ilse de Lange performed the song twice. In the TV show of Paul de Leeuw and in the radio show of Giel Beelen.
Connie Talbot, from the British television talent show Britain's Got Talent, put the song on her first studio album Over The Rainbow that was released November 2007.
In the 2008 Season of American Idol, Syesha Mercado sang this song during a week devoted to Dolly Parton.
In The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Charice sang this song with "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" in December 2007 and she covered this song in her debut album.
In 2009 Leona Lewis and Justin Timberlake plan to record a duet of the song.
Use of the song in pop culture
The song appears in at least five major films. In addition to the two described above (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and The Bodyguard), Parton's original 1973 recording was used in Martin Scorsese's 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, playing in a scene while Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel are making small talk in a bar. During the "Elephant Love Medley" song from the 2001 hit film Moulin Rouge!, Christian (Ewan McGregor) and Satine (Nicole Kidman) sing the Whitney Houston-styled climatic key change chorus. In 1996 film "It's My Party" about a man dying of AIDS throwing a party to say goodbye to his friends before he commits suicide, the lead character, played by Eric Roberts, chooses to play the Parton original several times to symbolize his feelings, causing his friends to comment on his music selection. Adam Sandler sings the song during a shower scene in Bulletproof.
On the television show Gilmore Girls, in episode 7.20 ("Lorelai? Lorelai?") Lorelai Gilmore sings the Dolly Parton arrangement of the song in a karaoke bar. She begins singing it to her daughter Rory, who is graduating from Yale, but when her on-again off-again fiance Luke Danes walks into the bar she shifts her attention and is clearly singing it to him. This led to discussion among her friends,
Lane Kim: She's a Whitney fan?
Rory Gilmore: Oh, I think it's Dolly inspired.
In the video game, Karaoke Revolution Party, the Whitney Houston version is on it..
On ESPN Radio and ESPN 2's Mike and Mike in the Morning, Mike Greenberg, who is an avid New York Jets fan, plays the Houston version of the song whenever he or Mike Golic talks about Chad Pennington.
On the NBC television show 30 Rock during the episode Hard Ball, the song is comically song by Tracy Jordan with Kenneth Parcell when he needs his bodyguards.
Whitney Houston's cover also appears in The Simpsons season 10 episode, "Mayored to the Mob," where it's sung to Homer after he graduates bodyguard school. It also appears in the end credits of the episode.
In the Futurama episode Spanish Fry, Turanga Leela performs the song after touting it as the greatest love song ever written.
On the show Martin, in the episode "The Break Up part 3", Martin wins Gina back by quoting words from the song "I`ll go because if I stay I`ll just get In your way so I`ll go but I`ll think of you every step of the way. Bittersweet Memories"Gina" That is all I'm taking with me so good-bye, Please don't cry, We both know that I'm not what you need. And I...
Will always love you I...Will always love you, ooh "
The song was played during a segment at Movie Rocks Show in 2007 where different movie songs and themes were played by piano.
The song was sung by Leona Lewis on the third series of the X Factor in 2006.
Six-year old Connie Talbot did a cover of the song on her debut album Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
In 2003, Rolling Stone and MTV ranked Houston's version at #40 in its list of 100 Greatestest Pop songs of All Time.
In 2007, VH1 listed Houston's version at #4 in its list of the Greatest Songs of the 90s.
Then in 2005, Maureen Marcelo delivered an outstanding performance on the first season of Philippine Idol.
On season seven of the hit show American Idol, finalist Syesha Mercado performed the hit single under the guidance of Dolly Parton.
I'd Do Aything contestant Rachel Tucker sang the power ballad in the quarter-finals of the series on 17 May, 2008.
The song was also sung by Niki Evans for her audition on the 4th series of The X Factor in 2007
On the second episode of Britain's Got Talent 2008 (aired 19 April 2008) the Filipino Madonna Decena sang the classic, bringing judge Amanda Holden to tears, and receiving high praise from the judges.
In the episode of The Steve Harvey Show, in Season 2's "Ice Station Piggy" Romeo sings the song.
On Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Carlton refers to "I Will Always Love You" in the 1993 episode "Just Say Yo".
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