At the 36th GRAMMY Awards in 1994, Pop superstar Whitney Houston walked away with a number of trophies for work found aboard her blockbuster ‘Bodyguard’ soundtrack project – powered to prominence by its lead single, ‘I Will Always Love You’ (which nabbed the Record of the Year gramophone that year).
One of the most successful songs of all-time, ‘Always’ – a remake of Dolly Parton‘s 1982 hit of the same name – may have seemed to be an out-of-the-box critical and commercial win, but producer David Foster reveals it almost didn’t happen.
The story inside:
Taking to Entertainment Weekly in a story printed Monday (July 13), the legendary songwriter-producer – hot on the promo trail for his recently released Netflix documentary ‘Off the Record’ – revealed the remake wasn’t the original choice for the film.
Foster was also crucial in making sure that the full version of the film’s masterpiece, Houston’s version of Dolly Parton’s anthem”I Will Always Love You,” made it into the final cut.
The original choice was the Jimmy Ruffin classic “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted,” but, Foster says “I couldn’t make it fit for Whitney. I tried two demos. I didn’t like it. She didn’t like it.” So when the Parton song was suggested by the film’s star Kevin Costner, the production grabbed Linda Ronstadt’s version to use as a guide. “The minute I heard that song, I knew what to do with it and how to make it perfect for Whitney.” But it was Parton herself who alerted him that Ronstadt had omitted the key final verse (“I hope life treats you kind…”) during a chat they had at the time.
“Dolly was like, ‘Wow. I can’t wait to hear the third verse,’ and I go, ‘What third verse? There’s no third verse.'” Good catch, Dolly! “She’s had, of course, tremendous success and doesn’t need one more hit song,” says Foster. “But she was very grateful to that. She made jokes, ‘I bought my new house with that song.'” [source]
The rest, as they say, is history! Look below to see the trailer for ‘David Foster: Off the Record.’
Thank God because that song wouldn’t fit honestly thank goodness Kevin gave that suggestion because I Will Always Love You fits perfectly and of course lovely by Whitney.
Good call, Whitney’s version of the song is one of those songs that redefined pop music,and vocal performances,you can’t detail American music history and even world music history without a mention of that performance. I miss Whitney everyday. The G.O.A.T.
David foster one of the great producers songwriters of the 80s and 90s one of my favorites.