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Dolly Invested Royalties From Whitney's 'I Will Always Love You' In A Black Community

Dolly Parton attends MusiCares Person of the Year honoring her in 2019.
Rich Fury
/
Getty Images for NARAS
Dolly Parton attends MusiCares Person of the Year honoring her in 2019.

Country music icon Dolly Parton has revealed that she used some of the royalties she earned from Whitney Houston's cover of her song "I Will Always Love You" to invest in an office complex in a Black neighborhood in Nashville, Tenn.

During an appearance on the show Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Parton said she thought it was an apt way to honor the Black singer, who boosted the song's popularity with her cover.

"It was mostly just Black families and people that lived around there," Parton said. "It was a whole strip mall. And I thought, 'This is the perfect place for me to be, considering it was Whitney.' "

She went on: "I just thought, 'This was great. I'm going to 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.' "

Houston recorded perhaps the best-known cover of "I Will Always Love You" for the 1992 film The Bodyguard, which she also starred in alongside Kevin Costner. That recording reportedly earned Parton $10 million in royalties in the 1990s, according to Forbes.

Houston died in an accidental drowning in a hotel room in 2012.

Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" in 1972 on the same day she wrote "Jolene," another one of her major hits.

During the interview, Parton said she was never asked to perform a duet of the song with Houston but wished that she had.

"I would've loved that," Parton said. "But I don't think I could've come up to snuff with her though. She'd have outsung me on that one for sure."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Joe Hernandez
[Copyright 2024 NPR]

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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