County singer Dolly Parton has recently explained why she never allowed Elvis Presley to cover her 1974 hit ‘I Will Always Love You’.
Presley was known to love the ballad and wanted to record his own rendition, but a conflict with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, meant Parton refused.
“I wouldn’t let Colonel Tom Parker [have the rights to the song],” she said in an interview with BBC Radio 2. “Elvis loved it. I talked to Priscilla not very long ago – she said, ‘Elvis sang it to me when we were on the courthouse steps after we got divorced’.“
Presley reportedly had his version readily “worked up,” and his team had called Parton to the studio to hear part of it. But the night before, Parker called her and said the project wouldn’t go ahead unless Parton gave Presley the copyright for the song, which she refused.
‘I Will Always Love You’ was famously covered by Whitney Houston in 992 for The Bodyguard, serving as proof that Parton was more than willing to let artists cover her songs, but she didn’t want to budge on the copyright demand.
Parton herself is currently set to release her own set of covers with on her 49th solo album Rockstar. The album will feature nine original songs, and 21 covers of classic rock numbers.
More recently, Parton shared her cover of The Beatles‘ ‘Let It Be,’ which featured an ensemble of vocal collaborations from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Frampton.
