Dolly Parton struck music gold with a 1974 hit, named the top country love song of all time, but does it really deserve the title?
Billboard shared their staff picks for the 50 Favorite Country Love Songs of all time in 2025, and "I Will Always Love You" is at the top of their list. The outlet wrote, "Dolly Parton’s soft yet soulful tone shines in her 1974 ballad, which topped Hot Country Songs. Momentum for the song resurged in the ’90s when Whitney Houston’s iconic cover topped the Hot 100 for 14 weeks following its placement in 1992’s The Bodyguard, making it one of the biggest hits of all time."
Although the tune is widely believed to be a love song, "I Will Always Love You" is peppered with heartbreak. The song was written by Parton to tell her longtime mentor, duet partner, and producer Porter Wagoner, that she was leaving him to be her own star.
Parton told The Tennessean that she and Wagoner, "had one of those relationships where we were just so passionate about what we did; it was like fire and ice. We kind of butted heads all the time, but we loved each other."
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She continued, "There was a great passion there. And I wanted to leave the show. I had told Porter that I would stay with the show for five years. I wanted to go out on my own."
"Well, five years passed, and I was still in the show. We were having big hit duets. It was his show, and I understood all that, but I still wanted to go. So we were going around and around with that," Parton added.
"So, finally, I thought, 'How am I gonna make him understand how much I appreciate everything, but that I have to go? He won't listen to me. He's not listening to reason when I want to go!' So I went home, and I thought, 'Well, what do you do best? You write songs.' So I sat down, and I wrote this song."
Parton concluded, "I took it back to the office the next day. I said, 'Porter, sit down. I've written something I think you need to hear.' I started singing 'I Will Always Love You,' and he started crying. When I finished, he said, "Well, hell! If you feel that strong about it, just go on — providing I get to produce that record, because that's the best song you ever wrote.'"
Parton's version of "I Will Always Love You" would reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in June 1974. A rerelease of the song charted on Billboard in 1982 at No. 53.
The song skyrocketed after Houston recorded it for the soundtrack of the feature film The Bodyguard. The crossover success cemented its place as one of the most enduring recordings in music history. In 1992, "I Will Always Love You" spent an incredible 14 weeks at Billboard's No. 1 position.
"I Will Always Love You" would go on to win Record of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards, as well as Best Pop Vocal Performance, and Album of the Year for The Bodyguard soundtrack. The song was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018.
Whitney Houston’s version became a global phenomenon, topping charts worldwide and redefining the song for a new era. The massive success also sent listeners back to Dolly Parton’s original, reminding fans that the iconic song began as a bittersweet breakup ballad.
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