Her most iconic career move ever, in my humble opinion.
And here’s why…
To be honest, it’s nearly impossible to single out one specific thing Dolly did in her career that warranted top honors. She was a trailblazer, an incredible artist, a one-of-a-kind businesswoman, and
The one and only icon herself and queen of country music, Dolly Parton, has passed away at 80 years old in Nashville, Tennessee. She is of course a beloved singer, songwriter, philanthropist, actress, playwright, and author died peacefully today in her home state.
Dolly is preceded in death by her beloved husband of 59 years Carl Thomas Dean (1942 – 2025), her mother Avie Lee Caroline Owens (1923 – 2003), and father, Robert Lee Parton, Sr. (1921 – 2000). Dolly had been dealing with some major health issues since last year, and her team shared the following statement about her death:
“A rhinestone life that shone bright enough for the world to see, Dolly will forever stand as an inspiration not only through her timeless music and prolific songwriting, but also her wit, warmth, and kindness that made us all feel like family.
Dolly Parton’s legacy is one of love, compassion, and resilience. With a seven-decade career, she inspired multiple generations of artists and fans with her music and an unwavering commitment to making the world a better place. Her songs will continue to resonate with people of all ages, and her philanthropic work will have a lasting impact.”
Dolly lost her longtime husband, Carl Dean, in May of last year, and they had been together for nearly 60 years. They shared a very long and happy marriage, though Dean purposefully remained out of the spotlight, a dynamic that certainly worked for them.
Of course, Dolly has left behind a catalog of music which is incomparable, and the crown jewel of that vast and wide selection is her mega hit “I Will Always Love You.” In 1974, Dolly released her original solo version, which peaked at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart later that year, and then rereleased it October 1982, with a re-recording for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas soundtrack.
But there’s so much more history to it, that starts back on the Porter Wagoner Show, where Dolly got her start in the music business… she decided to leave in 1973 to pursue a solo career, and Porter was not happy about it.
Dolly’s Heartfelt Love Letter To Porter Wagoner
Porter was so upset that even sued Dolly over her departure, and they didn’t talk for many years after the whole fiasco, but eventually did become friends again – and in fact, became so close, that Dolly was with Porter and his family when he passed away in 2007. But back then, Dolly wrote “I Will Always Love You” to try to explain her feelings about leaving his show to Porter.
She explained in-detail how the song came about in a 2015 interview with The Tennessean:
“How am I gonna make him understand how much I appreciate everything, but that I have to go? So I went home and I thought, ‘Well, what do you do best? You write songs.’ So I sat down and I wrote this song…
I took it back to the office the next day. I said, ‘Porter, sit down. I’ve written something I think you need to hear.’ I started singing ‘I Will Always Love You,’ and he started crying. When I finished, he said, ‘Well, hell! If you feel that strong about it, just go on — providing I get to produce that record because that’s the best song you ever wrote.’”
But there was another wrinkle in the history… because of how successful her song became, it caught the ear of music icon Elvis Presley, who wanted to record his own version. But Dolly turned him down…
Why Dolly Passed On Elvis Presley
Unlike almost every other artist in the music industry, or a lot of them at least, Dolly has always maintained full ownership of her publishing rights, with the exception of a very small handful in her catalog that she doesn’t own outright. She has said before in interviews that her dad told her when she was getting started in the music business that she should keep as much of her own stuff as she could, and very wisely, she followed that advice.
Dolly famously owned the rights to pretty much all of her music, as she opened her own publishing label very early on, called OwePar, which served her very well in the long run.
But Elvis’ interest in “I Will Always Love You” started with a phone call from his infamous manager, Colonel Parker, the day before Elvis was supposed to go into the studio to actually cut it. They were set to discuss the deal, and she said she had already agreed to letting him record it, though nothing had been signed off on or made official in ink yet, and Elvis really wanted to record it and was excited about it.
Unfortunately for Dolly, or perhaps… fortunately, it was during this call that Parker told her they required all of the publishing rights, or at least 50%, in order for Elvis to record a song. Parker was smart… he knew the publishing to a mega-hit like this was very valuable. In a 2018 cover story with the UK magazine Event, Dolly gave a bit more insight into how everything went down:
“His manager Colonel Parker called me up the day before he was due to record the song and said, ‘Now you know Elvis has to have the publishing rights or at least half the publishing rights of any song he records.’”
And that’s when it hit her that there was no way she could go through with it:
“That was my most important copyright at the time. If it had been a new song, I might have considered it.”
Like she mentioned before, she might’ve considered giving Elvis the rights if it was a different song he wanted to record, but she just couldn’t give that one up, knowing what a special and important song it was for her career. I mean, she was over the moon to have Elvis want to sing her song, and told everyone she knew he was going to sing it. But at the end of the day, she had to follow her gut and couldn’t let that one go if she wouldn’t be maintaining the rights:
“I was desperate for Elvis to sing my song and I’d told everyone he was going to sing it, but I couldn’t let that happen. It’s my song, my publishing rights. It broke my heart but I had to turn him down.”
And she doubled down on the sentiment even decades later, saying that it’s still one of the hardest things she’s ever done:
“That was one of the hardest things I ever had to do because I loved Elvis.”
It just makes you wonder what could’ve been if he ever got his hands on it… and Dolly still does, too, saying:
“He would have sung it great. Can you imagine Elvis singing ‘I Will Always Love You’?”
I can, and it would’ve been nothing short of spectacular, I’m sure. In fact, Priscilla Presley once told Dolly that Elvis sang that song to her as they walked down the courthouse steps on the day they officially got divorced. However, the publishing decision would have massive ramifications about two decades later when a young pop star named Whitney Houston recorded the song.
Why It Mattered So Much
For anyone else, truly, that could have been a career-ender, or at the very least, a huge set back. Actually, I can’t think of one other artist who would’ve turned Elvis down. The context matters here, because this was in 1974, when Elvis was the MUCH bigger star, and Dolly was still very fresh in country music. I mean, I can rarely think of a time when something like this has ever happened.
Most musicians would dream of having someone like Elvis cut their song, even if that meant giving away their publishing rights to get there. But as we all know, Dolly was a woman of character, and it obviously was her dream for him to sing it, but she wasn’t willing to sacrifice everything to make that a reality. Her integrity proved to be the guiding light once again, because little did she know at the time, another massive artist would cover it and make it one of the most commercially successful songs of all-time.
It really is hard to overstate just how incredible it was she made that decision. It was smart in so many ways, aside from the money aspect, because it set a precedent that Dolly couldn’t be bought. When you look back at her life, and everything she’s done, it’s overwhelming the impact she made through her music and her philanthropy work over the years. You could point to countless examples and stories of things she’s done that made her truly rare and one-of-a-kind, but when it comes to her music career alone, nothing has ever topped the fact that she was willing to turn down Elvis Presley to stick to her values and what she believed in.
She’s admitted that she cried all night long after doing that, which is more than understandable, but that kind of integrity is rare and Dolly has always, always stayed true to herself at every turn, and I think that has a lot to do with her unimaginable, and lasting, success. That kind of decision takes some real… rhinstones.
Once again, I say, there will never be another. Rest in peace, Mrs. Dolly.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite performances of “I Will Always Love You”:
