Elvis Presley broke Dolly Parton‘s heart in the mid-1970s, leaving the country music legend crying all night. During a stop on Reba McEntire‘s Living & Learning podcast, Parton said Presley contacted her about recording a cover of “I Will Always Love You” after she had a No. 1 hit on the country charts with the song in 1974. Money got in the way though, crushing Parton’s heart. Parton also shared this same story in an August interview with Billboard.
“They had called me to say that Elvis was recording it and asked if I wanted to come to the studio,” Parton told McEntire, notes Closer Weekly. “Elvis wanted to meet me!” Parton said she “loved” Presley at the time and was looking forward to meeting him. Before that happened though, his manager, Col. Tom Parker called Parton with a strange request.
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According to Parton, Parker asked her to sign over half of the publishing rights to the song. Parton could not do that. “It was the most important copyright I had in my publishing company,” she said. “I told him, ‘I can’t give it to you, I’m going to leave that to my family.’ And he said, ‘Well, then we can’t do it.’” Parton said she later “cried all night” because she was so excited by the idea of Presley recording her song. “I knew he loved it,” she said.
Parton said she learned how to stand up for herself in a situation like that while growing up in Tennessee. She had to “go up against many a good ole boy” growing up. “I’ve let a lot of what people call ‘good deals’ go by, because I wasn’t willing to sacrifice things I thought that would entail,” she said. “You’ve got to learn to stand up and live with the decisions you make.”
While Presley never recorded “I Will Always Love You,” Parton said his ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, told her Presley would sing the song to her after their divorce. “So I know how much he loved, and that touched me,” Parton said. Presley and Priscilla divorced in 1973, four years before Presley’s death at 42.
Parton released “I Will Always Love You” in 1974 and featured it on her album, Jolene. The song has been covered by dozens of artists, the most famous Whitney Houston, whose version was included on The Bodyguard soundtrack. Houston’s recording is still one of the best-selling singles of all time and the best selling single recorded by a woman.
Parton’s latest project is the CBS TV special, A Holly Dolly Christmas, which featured songs from her new Christmas album of the same name. The special aired on Sunday night and is available to stream on CBS All Access. The album includes several Christmas standards, as well as collaborations with other stars. Miley Cyrus recorded “Christmas Is” with Parton, while Jimmy Fallon joined her for “All I Want For Christmas is You.” Willie Nelson also joined Parton for a new recording of his song “Pretty Paper.”
