Dolly Parton appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen and revealed what she did with the royalties from Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You.”
Parton originally wrote and recorded “I Will Always Love You” in 1973 as a farewell to her former partner Porter Wagoner, whom she had worked with on his self-titled show for seven years. Parton’s recording of the song was a huge success for the singer as it topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart….twice! The first time was in June 1974. The second time was eight years later when she re-recorded it for the soundtrack of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
The already popular country song reached a new generation and audience when Whitney Houston recorded her version in 1992 for the film The Bodyguard. Houston’s rendition holds the record for the best-selling single by a woman in music history, and in doing so, it earned Dolly Parton a massive payday—roughly $10 million in the ’90s and continued royalties ever since.
What did Dolly Parton do with the $10 Million in royalties?
In a 2021 interview with Andy Cohen, Parton revealed how she spent some of the money earned by Whitney Houston’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You.”
“I bought my big office complex down in Nashville. So I thought, ‘Well, this is a wonderful place to be,’” Parton replied to Cohen’s question about the best thing she bought with the royalties. “I bought a property down in what was the black area of town, and it was mostly just black families and people that lived around there. And it was off the beaten path from 16th avenue.”
“And I thought, ‘Well, I am going to buy this place, the whole strip mall.’ And thought, ‘This is the perfect place for me to be,’ considering it was Whitney,” Dolly said. “So I just thought this was great, I’m just gonna be down here with her people, who are my people as well. And so I just love the fact that I spent that money on a complex. And I think, ‘this is the house that Whitney built.’”
Dolly Parton wrote another hit song the same day she wrote “I Will Always Love You.”
Dolly was feeling especially inspired on an April day in 1973. The legendary singer-songwriter was only 27 when she wrote “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” back to back.
Both songs would become signature hits but for very different reasons. “Jolene” was inspired by a flirty interaction Dolly’s husband had with a bank teller not long after they got married. She told NPR in 2008, “She had everything I didn’t, like legs—you know, she was about 6 feet tall,” Parton said. “And had all that stuff that some little short, sawed-off honky like me don’t have.”
“I Will Always Love You” was written as a farewell letter to Porter Wagoner as a “thank you” for all he had done for her career.
“How am I going to make him understand how much I appreciate everything, but that I have to go?” Dolly once said. “I thought, well, what do you do best? You write songs. So I sat down and I wrote this song.”
The next day, Dolly sang the song for Porter alone in his office. Porter cried as Dolly sang. When the song was over, he told her, “That’s the best song you’ve ever wrote. You can go if I can produce the song.”
Many artists have covered “I Will Always Love You,” but none have achieved the success Whitney Houston did with the song.
Hear Whitney Houston sing “I Will Always Love You” in The Bodyguard below.
