Music Awards

“I Will Always Love You” – Grammy Covers

randydafoe27 Comments

“I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston won Record of the Year in 1994. Houston also won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. If that was not enough there are likely very few people on the planet over 35 years of age that don’t know Whitney Houston’s 1992 version from the movie The Bodyguard. The Grammy winning producer was once again David Foster, who won in 1992 with “Unforgettable”.

It was a worldwide smash #1 hit song making it the only song to hit #1 on a Billboard chart three separate times. Once on the Hot 100 and twice on the US Hot Country Songs chart – 1974 and re-recorded in 1983. Whitney’s version became one of the few songs to re-enter the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 as after her passing in 2012 the song would peak at #3.

The story of the song is well documented so I won’t expand on it today. This series is a chronical list of Covers that won Song and/or Record of the Year. That said here are some of the songs cover stats.

With 277 Versions “I Will Always Love You” is of course written by Parton, who recorded it in 1973 and released it as a single in March of 1974. In 1995 her duet with Vince Gill charted at #15. Sarah Washington did a dance cover that charted very well in Europe in 1994, Rik Waller charted #6 on the UK Singles chart in 2002. That gets us to six different versions that I know of that charted.

It’s a very difficult stat to check as there are literally 100s of charts around the world but I only know of a few songs that may have more appearances, for example; Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Unchained Melody” have at least eight. John Lennon’s “Imagine” has cover versions that appeared on many world charts by various artists, although I was not able to verify most of it, I did see a list of over a dozen names.

27 thoughts on ““I Will Always Love You” – Grammy Covers”

  1. I quite enjoy both versions of this song. As has been said, it’s certainly been overplayed, though I don’t find that has diminished my enjoyment. Interestingly, when my son had his outlaw country band about a decade ago, he would sing this song in a slightly gravelly country vocal, and he had good range control so it really worked! With that band breaking up not long after due to some members going in different directions, I miss hearing his version!

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  2. While I think Whitney Houston was an outstanding vocalist, I do have mixed feelings about some of the songs she sang. My problem with “I Will Always Love You” was it was played to death, which made it hard to love. I much prefer Dolly Parton’s original.

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    • You are right there it certainly was played to death while prior unless you were a country fan I don’t think you would have heard Dolly’s original. Whitneys version brought Dolly a lot more attention, deserved of course.

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      • You know, for the longest time with all her plastic surgery, I regarded Dolly Parton as completely “artificial.” That’s because I had no idea who she is! Then I watched some interviews and realized what a beautiful person she is. Now I just love her. And I’m glad Whitney’s success also helped Dolly’s original version get more attention.

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  3. When I learned the story behind this song, I decided that it was more than just a pretty song: It showed the depth of respect and (professional) love she had for Porter Wagoner, who gave her her big break. She was saying “thank you” the best way she knew how. Knowing that made me see that the only person who could do this was Dolly…

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  4. Whit- Please stop- enough already. I just can’t take noooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooooooOOOOOooooooOOOOOooooooOOOOOH etc etc etc, please, no more. I’m done with every rising note, every overwrought syllable of this song, Dolly and all. Sorry.

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  5. As a song, it’s quite good. Credit to Dolly, who recorded a very decent version. Sorry, the Whitney one grates on me and honestly ranks high on my list of all-time least favorite hit songs, a combination of me not liking her voice combined with how extraordinarily over-played it has been for decades. But, that said, I was kind of happy when I found the whole story of it to realize it made Dolly a lot of cash.
    Totally agree with you guys on the voice gymnastics and the equally-annoying long guitar solos.

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  7. Houston did a good job but I’m not one for vocal gymnastics…her cover you would hear everywhere at that time it seemed like. Some hits just keep playing…this is one of them.
    It would have been cool if Elvis would have covered this one like he should have if not for Parker. I do like how Parton kept it simple.

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