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Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You [1974] RIP Dolly (www.youtube.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/70smusic@lemmy.world
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[–] [S] 1 point 2 months ago

https://variety.com/2026/music/news/dolly-parton-dead-dies-country-music-1236842727/

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    [–] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    I really dig your opening paragraph. Mad respect for the self honesty there

    Edit: though you have a misconception.

    This song wasn't written for Whitney Houston. Dolly wrote it when she was stepping out on her own as a musician after working for/with Porter Wagoner. If she wrote it for anyone, it was for him, and it was a long time before The Bodyguard

    Iirc, it was Kevin Costner that advocated for I will always love you, but don't trust my memory enough to quote that as fact. Coulda been someone else involved with the movie. But they needed something special for the movie, and IWALY was what they went with.

    Dolly later said that it became Whitney's song though. Or something similar, signifying that she loved her version and didn't mind it being the better known one once it hit. I think that's why some folks get the idea she wrote it for Whitney.

    Dolly gets a lot of deserved love for her singing, and plenty for her songwriting. But she definitely stands up with the best songwriters of her generation and doesn't get quite the degree of recognition for it that I think she should. I put her right up there with Kristofferson, Prine and that sort. Folks that can make musical poetry that transcends genre.

    Sorry. I'm a tad emotional about her going.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago

    Yeah, I read that later. That was always my misconception, that she wrote the song for Whitney Houston, but you're right, I read later yesterday that it was written years before and for whom. He was her manager? Something like that.

    What I read went on to say that Dolly took the royalties she got from Whitney Houston covering her song and built some kind of social building in a Black neighborhood and called it the house Whitney built.

    I definitely went and read more about her throughout the day.

    For further clarification... what I post isn't fiction, but it's also not necessarily concrete fact. I could source everything I say, but when I share music, I'm sharing stories with it that I've heard or cultivated over the years. They may not be 100% accurate, but it's the stories that I associated with the music and they became part of the music. Some may say that's bullshit, but I think it's more like "don't let facts get in the way of a good story." The story may not be "good" to someone who knows the facts, but I only say it's "good" because the music is. If that makes any sense. I suppose, in other words, when it comes to the music, the objective facts matter less than the feelings behind them — however, I will never begrudge someone for setting the record straight. In fact, I appreciate it.

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    • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Kind words. Thank you. Like you, not a big fan but much respect for her support of … everybody. Lovely human being.

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