i will always love you

 Whitney Houston had the biggest hit of her career and one of the biggest of all time with her dramatic gospel cover of this heartfelt country song written by Dolly Parton. Parton says 'I Will Always Love You' was inspired by her mentor and duet partner Porter Wagoner:    "Of course, 'I Will Always Love You' is the biggest song so far in my career. I'm famous for several, but that one has been recorded by more people and made me more money, I think, than all of them. But that song did come from a true and deep place in my heart.  I was trying to get away on my own because I had promised to stay with Porter's show for five years. I had been there for seven.  And we fought a lot. We were very much alike. We were both stubborn. We both believed that we knew what was best for us. Well, he believed he knew what was best for me, too, and I believed that I knew more what was best for me at that time. So, needless to say, there was a lot of grief and heartache there, and he just wasn't listening to my reasoning for my going.  I thought, 'He's never going to listen. He's just going to bitch every day that I go in to talk about this.' So I thought, 'Well, why don't you do what you do best? Why don't you just write this song?' Because I knew at that time I was going to go, no matter what. So I went home and out of a very emotional place in me at that time, I wrote the song, 'I Will Always Love You.'... It's saying, 'Just because I'm going don't mean I won't love you. I appreciate you and I hope you do great and I appreciate everything you've done, but I'm out of here. [That's] basically what I was saying. And I took it in the next morning. I said, 'Sit down, Porter. I've written this song, and I want you to hear it.' So I did sing it. And he was crying. He said, 'That's the prettiest song I ever heard. And you can go, providing I get to produce that record.' And he did, and the rest is history."

Bob Ferguson produced the song for Parton's 'Jolene' album and the single went to the top of the country chart in June of 1974. When it was re-released in 1982, it went to the top of the country chart again. 

Ten years later, Whitney Houston covered the song for the soundtrack to her film debut 'The Bodyguard'.  Her version was produced by Clive Davis and David Foster and recorded with her touring band.  The record executives didn't think her vocal arrangement with the acappella intro would be a hit; but she stuck to her guns and the song was released in that form.  

'I Will Always Love You' only took two weeks to become Houston's tenth chart topper.  It spent fourteen weeks at number one on the US pop chart, breaking the record just set by Boyz II Men with 'End of the Road'.  The single also went to number one in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US adult contemporary and R&B charts.  It won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.  After Houston's death in February of 2012, the song charted once again, going to the top ten all over the world.  'I Will Always Love You' has sold over twelve million copies worldwide. 







http://www.whitneyhouston.com/












If I should stay
Well, I would only be in your way
And so I'll go, and yet I know
That I'll think of you each step of my way
And I will always love you
I will always love you
Bitter-sweet memories
That's all I have, and all Im taking with me
Good-bye, oh, please don't cry
Cause we both know that Im not
What you need
I will always love you
I will always love you
And I hope life, will treat you kind
And I hope that you have all
That you ever dreamed of
Oh, I do wish you joy
And I wish you happiness
But above all this
I wish you love
I love you, I will always love

I, I will always, always love you
I will always love you
I will always love you
I will always love you