Beyoncé may be paying tribute to country icon Dolly Parton on her upcoming country album, Renaissance: Act II. Since breaking the web during the Super Bowl with the release of two country songs – “Texas Hold ‘Em,” and “16 Carriages” — she almost instantly made history as the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Many have been wondering what the album will consist of and if there will be features, covers, and more. According to Parton, one of her classics made the cut.
“Well, I think she has! I think she’s recorded ‘Jolene’ and I think it’s probably gonna be on her country album, which I’m very excited about that,” Parton revealed to Knox News in a recent interview. And she’s honored. “I love her!” Parton said of the Queen Bey. “She’s a beautiful girl and a great singer.”
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Fans will have to wait until the album drips on March 29. But Parton says she and Beyonce have had a friendly relationship over the years. “We’ve kind of sent messages back and forth through the years. And she and her mother were like fans, and I was always touched that they were fans, and I always thought she was great.”
Parton’s biggest song made into a cover is Whitney Houston’s 1992 version of Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” The cover was featured on the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, which Houston starred in — but the song nearly didn’t make the cut.
“She was supposed to sing ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,’” Maureen Crowe, music supervisor of the movie, told The Post. It was Jimmy Ruffin’s 1966 Motown classic. “But when you slow that song down, it’s like a dirge. And it had been covered for Fried Green Tomatoes [by Paul Young in 1991], and it was climbing the charts as we were shooting The Bodyguard. So we couldn’t use that song because it would just seem like we ripped it off from Fried Green Tomatoes.”
After learning that “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” was no longer an option, Crowe had to develop another song that would exude the same tone and feeling. She suggested, “I Will Always Love You,” and the rest was history.
