Elvis Presley: Dolly Parton on turning down The King’s request – ‘I cried all night’
ELVIS PRESLEY wanted to cover Dolly Parton, but the country music star turned down The King and ended up crying all night.
It’s not very often that a singer’s called up and told that not only does Elvis Presley want to meet them, but The King wants to cover their track. And that’s exactly what happened to a young Dolly Parton back in the early 1970s. The now 74-year-old revealed how Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker had quite the demand for her song I Will Always Love You.
Speaking on Living and Learning with Reba McEntire, Dolly said: “It didn’t have anything to do with Elvis. I loved Elvis.
“It was Colonel Tom Parker, his manager, who was brilliant.
“You can’t take that way from people. He did all right by him.”
However, the country star was reluctant to give away her own song like that.
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Dolly continued: “But, I already had a No. 1 song, I Will Always Love You.
“That was the most important copyright I had in my publishing company.
“So I was so excited, I told everybody. They had called me that Elvis was recording it, and if I wanted to come to the studio. Elvis wanted to meet me and all that.”
That evening, before the session, Colonel Tom Parker called her up.
Elvis’ manager said to Dolly: “You know, we don’t record anything with Elvis unless we have the publishing, or at least half the publishing.”
She replied: “Well, that throws a new light on this because I can’t give you half the publishing. I’m gonna leave that to my family. I can’t do that.”
So The Colonel told her that Elvis couldn’t cover the track as those were the terms.
Dolly admitted: “I cried all night. Oh, I just pictured Elvis, like, singing it. And I know that Elvis loved it. And I know it wasn’t him, but it’s true. I said no.”
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Of course, in the end Whitney Houston made Dolly’s two-time No 1 her very own in 1992.
The Bodyguard singer’s cover version spent a record-breaking 14 weeks at No 1 and is the sixth best-selling single of all time with 20 million sales.
In fact, Houston just beats Elvis in seventh place with It’s Now or Never.
I Will Always Love You reentered the charts in 2012 after her death, making it the second single ever to reach the Top 3 in separate chart runs.
Dolly also had a hit in Jolene, which her goddaughter Miley Cyrus has covered.
The 27-year-old’s version has almost 275 million views on YouTube.
Dolly was promoting her new Christmas record, which is her 47th solo album.
A Holly Dolly Christmas is out now and features Miley Cyrus.