Why Dolly Parton Refused To Let Elvis Presley Cover I Will Always Love You

Shortly after its release in 1974, Elvis Presley asked to cover Dolly Parton's emotionally charged "I Will Always Love You." Originally, Parton had agreed, but a phone call the night before recording led the Queen of Country Music to rescind her offer and refuse to let Presley release a cover of her hit. Plug pulled. No returns.

It would be easy to think that Presley was at the root of the issue — he had some well-known issues with his hedonistic lifestyle at the time — but there were never any real tensions between these two musical phenoms. In fact, Parton was excited at the idea of the king covering her tune.

"I Will Always Love You" had already been one of Parton's biggest hits in the country music world, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country chart in 1974, and having Elvis cover the track would've launched it to unimaginable heights. To be fair, this would happen a couple of decades later anyway, but nobody knew it then. The potential Elvis cover could've been a pivotal shift in the song's history and, possibly, Parton's bank account. So, why is it that we don't get to hear the "bittersweet memories" of this song from Presley's lips? Three words: Colonel Tom Parker.

In the end, Elvis Presley never covered Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" simply because his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, asked for too much. According to Parton in an interview with Dan Rather, Parker called her the night before Presley was supposed to start recording and told her they wouldn't do it unless Parton gave him at least half of the publishing rights to the song. "I can't do that," Parton responded. For her, half was a big number — too big — even for the king.

"I Will Always Love You" meant a lot to Parton and not just on an emotional level. The Queen of Country, in an interview with the BBC, said she believed it was "the most important copyright in [her] whole publishing company." Giving Presley a major portion of the rights would've probably cost Parton dearly in future revenue if the song ever had a massive blow-up moment, and a massive blow-up was sure to come.

In 1992, Whitney Houston released a cover of "I Will Always Love You" for the soundtrack to "The Bodyguard," her debut film. The song became a multi-chart hit, won several major awards, and sold over 1 million copies in a single week. Had Parton folded and given Presley the rights that Parker demanded, she would've missed out on a serious amount of money. And while we could mourn the cover that never happened, had history gone in Presley's favor, we may not have gotten a version of the song by Houston, the most-awarded female artist of all time.