Elvis Presley: Dolly Parton refused to let the King sing her song - but she wasn't happy
ELVIS PRESLEY was told by Dolly Parton that he was not allowed to sing one of her songs. She pointed out she wanted to "take care of her business" and keep the song in her pocket, but she was not very happy about the decision.
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Throughout his career, Elvis Presley performed and recorded a number of songs written by other popular artists. Dolly Parton was one of the most prolific songwriters at the time and the Nine To Five singer had penned a track that had piqued the interest of the King of Rock and Roll. However, the singer would not let Elvis buy the rights to it.
In the 1970s Elvis wanted to record Dolly's 1974 song I Will Always Love You - but there was a catch.
Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, asked for half of Dolly's publishing rights to the track.
Speaking in a new interview, Dolly revealed: "I said: 'I’m sorry, but I can’t give you the publishing.'
"I wanted to hear Elvis sing it, and it broke my heart - I cried all night. But I had to keep that copyright in my pocket."
The singer added: "You have to take care of your business! Everybody’s going to use you if they can." (Via W Magazine)
Dolly went on to explain why she couldn't let Elvis take her song.
She said: "These are my songs - they’re like my children. And I expect them to support me when I’m old!"
Speaking on Living and Learning with Reba McEntire in 2020, Dolly said: “It didn’t have anything to do with Elvis. I loved Elvis. But, I already had a No. 1 song, I Will Always Love You."
Dolly added: "That was the most important copyright I had in my publishing company."
The singer also previously revealed how "excited" she was to have a song requested by Elvis.
She said: "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.”
But when the meeting came up, Colonel Tom said: "You know, we don’t record anything with Elvis unless we have the publishing, or at least half the publishing."
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Dolly reluctantly 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."
Despite the pair not working together on I Will Always Love You, it seems there were no hard feelings between them.
Dolly told W Magazine: "Priscilla, Elvis’s wife, told me that when she and Elvis divorced, Elvis sang my song to her. That touched me so deeply."
20 years later Dolly's song was covered by fellow American star Whitney Houston.