Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993 TAG: 9303060184
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID HINCKLEY KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
FIRST HIT SONG HAS PAID OFF BIG FOR DOLLY PARTON
Dolly Parton wrote a batch of new songs in early 1973 and one of the numbers she showed to her boss, country singer Porter Wagoner, was "I Will Always Love You.""You give me that," he told her, "and you can have all the others, all you've ever written. I'm talking about making a career, making money. . . . That song will make you money as long as you live.
"Can you imagine this guy dating this girl? They're at a drive-in, listening to the radio, they're thinking about love. Can you imagine this guy holding this girl in his arms and `I Will Always Love You' comes on? If that don't send this guy in love with her, the son of a bitch is gone!"
Ironically, of course, "I Will Always Love You" laments a relationship that's over. For Parton specifically, it declared the end of her relationship with Wagoner, which was professional but still emotional.
She was one more plucky kid from Eastern Tennessee trying to make it in Nashville with a couple of marginal recordings when Wagoner invited her to join his troupe in 1967. Six years later, she was a star, and even though she was determined to go solo, the break was marked by ambivalence and tension.
When she did leave, Wagoner sued her for a lot of money. But he sure was right about "I Will Always Love You," wasn't he?
Parton recorded it on April 13, 1973, and it went to the top of the country charts almost exactly a year later, without drawing any pop radio notice. She rerecorded it in 1982 for the film version of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," where it was grafted onto Carol Hall's original score, and it went to No. 1 on the country chart again. It also hit No. 53 on the pop chart.
Then in 1992 Whitney Houston got hold of it and she hasn't let go yet. Last week Houston's rendition became the longest-running No. 1 hit in rock-era history, at 14 weeks. Since music charts were first kept back in the era when the measurement was sheet-music sales, only one song - Francis Craig's "Near You" in 1947 - has had a longer run at No. 1 (17 weeks).
Houston's "I Will Always Love You" has also become the first single since "We Are the World" to be certified quadruple platinum (4 million copies).
It's like Porter told Dolly: "That song will make you money as long as you live."
Still, success on its current level required a happy confluence of circumstances, not to mention the finest example of movie/music cross-promotion since "Saturday Night Fever." Popular singer playing popular character in popular movie sings heart-wrenching love song. Bingo.
For Houston, all this has sealed her ability to call her career shots. Her last concert tour did shaky business, but with the success of this song and movie, she doesn't have to tour again for a long time unless she wants to.
It hasn't gotten her out of the supermarket tabs, however. In fact, since she and Parton are both first-name celebs in that field, the inevitable reports have already surfaced of friction over between them over "I Will Always Love You."
Parton's representative, Ian Dove, says with some amusement that he doesn't think that's exactly true. "They've never met, I don't believe," he says. "But they have exchanged complimentary notes."
Furthermore, Parton says she's not only writing some new tunes that would be suitable for Whitney - more "pop" than Parton herself might record - but rummaging through her back stock to see what else she could offer.
Other good news for Parton is that "I Will Always Love You" may now become one of those songs - from good ones like "Always" to teeth-grinders like "Wind Beneath My Wings" - that every middle-of-the-road singer from star to lounge lizard will learn.
Julio Iglesias has a recording under way already.
Parton's own version, from "Whorehouse," was recirculated to country radio stations recently, though it didn't make much noise.
"I'm not sure why they chose that version," says Del De Montreux, music director of New York country station WYNY. Most country fans consider it the lesser of her two. "But I'm not sure either one would have gone anywhere with Whitney's out there. Dolly's recording is good. She did it just the way she should have. But Whitney blows anyone away."
To musical culture fans, it's also interesting when a black artist has a hit with a song that started on the pop or country charts. It usually works the other way around, hello Elvis Presley and Michael Bolton.
There has been more black/country cross-fertilization than some might suspect over the years, but only a handful of black artists have had hits with country songs: the Orioles with "Crying in the Chapel," Ray Charles with "I Can't Stop Loving You."
But there are a few universal truths in music, and one is that a good loving-and-losing song is just as valuable as a good loving-and-winning song - because where love lives, so does hope. That's the subtle whisper at the end of "The Bodyguard": She loves him, he loves her, maybe someday . . .
For Parton and Porter Wagoner, someday took 13 years. Wagoner's suit kept them in court for years, and while they eventually settled, it wasn't until April 29, 1989, that they shared a public stage again.
Parton sang "I Will Always Love You" and told Wagoner she wrote it for him. That day, he said, "The bitterness dissolved."
Impossibly hokey? Sure. What's the problem?