The 1990s cover that left Dolly Parton completely “overwhelmed”
Dolly Parton has demonstrated a remarkable skill for interpreting cover songs.
Although renowned as a prolific singer-songwriter, Parton is also adept at infusing her own distinct flair into tracks from her record collection. She possesses a deep understanding of honouring the original while innovatively enhancing it, thereby breathing new life into beloved songs.
That instinct is what separates a great cover from a forgettable one. Parton doesn’t simply replicate what came before her; she looks for the emotional core of a song and reshapes it to fit her own voice and perspective. In doing so, she manages to strike a rare balance between reverence and reinvention, ensuring that the track still resonates with longtime fans while offering something fresh for new listeners.
It also speaks to her broader philosophy as an artist. Parton has always treated music as something fluid rather than fixed, believing that a strong song should be able to exist in multiple forms without losing its essence. Whether she’s reinterpreting rock classics or hearing her own work transformed by others, that openness to evolution is a key part of her enduring appeal.
Her latest album, Rockstar, almost entirely consisted of covers with Parton ripping through classic tracks by artists including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin with the help of her star-studded phonebook. The jukebox-style record saw Parton pay homage to a selection of her rock ‘n’ roll heroes through the best medium she knew how.
Furthermore, her songs have also taken on new leases of life thanks to others recording new versions. Artists who have taken on numbers from Parton’s songbook include The Bee Gees, who had a hit with ‘Islands in the Stream’, Miley Cyrus, who took on ‘Jolene’, and Linda Ronstadt, who covered ‘I Will Always Love You’.
Ronstadt recorded ‘I Will Always Love You’ in 1975, only a year after Parton’s original was released and remained fresh in the public’s minds. However, Whitney Houston’s take, which appeared on the soundtrack to The Bodyguard in 1992, is undeniably the track’s definitive cover.
Houston took the song into a whole new realm, turning a country anthem into a soulful ballad, and spent 14 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, which had previously never happened. In addition to selling millions of copies, Houston’s cover of ‘I Will Always Love You‘ was crowned ‘Record of the Year’ at the Grammys in 1994.
Despite Parton being aware that ‘I Will Always Love You’ was due to be used in The Bodyguard, she wasn’t kept in the loop with developments. The singer-songwriter’s first exposure to the cover unexpectedly came while she was listening to the radio in her car, which almost led to her crashing the vehicle.
During an interview with Megan Welderp, she recalled: “Years later, when Whitney Houston did it, I didn’t know she had done it. I had sent it out to LA when they asked for some of my music, and Kevin Costner and his secretary had loved that song, but I never heard whether or not they had used it. One day, I was on my way home, and I turned the radio on. All of a sudden, I heard that A Capella part and I knew it was something familiar.”
Parton added: “By the time it dawned on me what I was hearing, I had to stop the car because I was almost wrecked. I thought my heart was just going to bust out of my body. It was the most powerful feeling I’ve ever had because it was such a shock, and she sang it so good. I was just so overwhelmed.”
From only one listen of Houston’s performance, Parton knew the version was special and felt honoured that a song she had written decades earlier had evolved into such a grande entity. Over 30 years after its release, Houston’s take on the track remains a vital lesson to artists about delivering a cover song.
