Why did nobody believe Dolly Parton was a serious songwriter?
When you search for specific scenes from 1982’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, it’s no surprise that one of the first to come up is one where Dolly Parton sings her famous hit ‘I Will Always Love You’ to Burt Reynolds’ Ed Earl.
The song had already been a hit after its initial release in 1974, re-entering the charts again when it was re-released in 1982 for the musical comedy adaptation of the 1978 stage musical, and the second time, Parton shifted the arrangement to a more considered and raw tone, focusing more heavily on the message of the song and its themes of parting ways with someone you were once loyal to.
Some people were critical of such a distinctive pivot from the beloved original, but Parton’s decision makes complete sense. Written originally as a heartfelt goodbye to her longtime mentor and collaborator, Porter Wagoner, ‘I Will Always Love You’ captures the anguish of leaving someone you loved dearly behind, the perfect backdrop to her character’s committed yet complicated relationship with Reynolds in Whorehouse.
It’s an interesting tone for someone Parton was never actually in love with in real life, not like that, but this is ultimately what makes ‘I Will Always Love You’ stronger in its execution – Parton knew that her decision to move on wouldn’t be taken lightly, but this is precisely what made it the right decision for her career, even if it broke her heart.
The decision was made based on a handful of factors. Firstly, Parton always knew that the partnership would attract rumours – as she once put it, with “any romantic duet”, people are always going to draw conclusions about both singers having an “affair”. She said that this was especially true for people in the country genre, where many who work together end up actually having a relationship with each other.
She also explained that, while you often develop a relationship with people when you work closely with and that what you do is often based on “passion” and “experiencing emotions”, that was not the case with her and Wagoner, and while he might have felt a certain way about her, if that was true, then it was entirely one-sided, but that was neither here nor there when the focus on their potential relationship was distracting from her potential as an artist in her own right.
As she explained in Ain’t Nobody’s Fool by Martha Ackmann, “[People thought] I was Porter’s whore or something. They didn’t take me seriously.”
When you have the full context, it makes sense as to why ‘I Will Always Love You’ was one of her most enduring hits. Although simple in lyrics and melody, the song tackles the complexities of something that’s both a positive and negative part of your life – like entering a relationship that feels good and beneficial to begin with, but which you ultimately grow out of somewhere down the line.
She addresses this in some of the song’s most hard-hitting lines. And where she really gets the point across are the moments when she wishes her former partner well – a bidding farewell and a promise to always appreciate what they were to each other, even when they go their separate ways.
