We're gonna start things off right with two major players' renditions of the great American classic, "I Will Always Love You," but who has earned it more? The delightfully tacky yet unrefined Dolly Parton, or Whitney herself, proving to us all recently that it ain't over til the cracked lady sings (don't call it a comeback).
A true, or even casual really, fan knows that it was Dolly's song first and was written and recorded by her in 1973 for Porter Wagoner, a business partner . The song became the second hit off her album Jolene (the first being Jolene, the title track, which is really the anthem of my life if you think about it) and though Whitney rejuvenaed it on the bigscreen in 1992 in The Bodyguard, Dolly had already made a place for it in cinema in the 1982 flick The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (the film of my life). Both made the song huge hits in their respective communities, Dolly's being country Whitney's Top 40, and it is probably going to be the career hit for Houston (given the sounds of things off her latest tracks). But what say you? Whose song is it actually? Argue in the comments people. For your consideration:
I don't know what this says about me, but I have to go with Whitney. Maybe I'm a child of the 90s, maybe I'm too biased against anything remotely smelling of country music, maybe Whitney's version is the one that I will always sing in my car, but that's how I feel.
ReplyDeleteDolly Parton's version. It's way more real. It always makes me emotional when I'm high. But Whitney is still my girl.
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