ELVIS PRESLEY ONCE WANTED TO SING DOLLY PARTON’S MUSIC — BUT THE REAL STORY IS MORE COMPLICATED THAN “I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU”
For decades, Elvis Presley fans have heard the story repeated almost like a legend:
Elvis wanted to record Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” — but that recording never happened.
According to Dolly Parton, the reason involved a publishing-rights demand that she could not accept.
But when we look more closely at Dolly’s own accounts and the recollections of people who were very close to Elvis, another detail begins to emerge.
“I Will Always Love You” may not have been the only Dolly Parton song Elvis wanted to record.
And that is where the story becomes especially interesting.
Dolly Parton once said that Elvis loved “I Will Always Love You” and wanted to record it. In a 1989 interview, years before Whitney Houston’s version became a worldwide phenomenon, Dolly explained that Elvis wanted to perform the song. She also said that Elvis was very fond of another one of her songs: “Coat of Many Colors.”
According to Dolly, Elvis had tried for some time to find a way to record “Coat of Many Colors,” but she also did not want to give up her publishing rights.
That is an important detail.
Because some versions of the story told today can leave the impression that there was only one song standing between Elvis and Dolly — “I Will Always Love You.”
But Dolly’s own account suggests that the two songs were separate stories.
And someone who was once very close to Elvis recalled something similar.
Marty Lacker, a member of Elvis’s inner circle, remembered that in the early 1970s, Elvis saw Dolly perform “Coat of Many Colors” on television. According to Lacker’s recollection, Elvis liked the song and wanted to record it. Lacker also recalled that publishing rights became an obstacle in the process.
That makes “Coat of Many Colors” a particularly interesting part of the Elvis–Dolly story.
But what about “I Will Always Love You”?
Here, there is another fairly clear piece of evidence.
Dolly repeatedly recalled that after the song became a hit, Elvis’s side contacted her about recording it. According to Dolly, Colonel Tom Parker said that in order for Elvis to record the song, Elvis’s side wanted a share of the publishing rights — in Dolly’s most famous retellings, half of the publishing rights.
Dolly was thrilled when she learned that Elvis wanted to sing her song.
For a songwriter still building her career, the idea that Elvis Presley — one of the biggest stars in the world — wanted to record her composition was almost a dream come true.
But there was a problem.
Dolly did not want to give up the rights to one of her most important works.
So she said no.
The Library of Congress also records Dolly’s account that Elvis wanted to record “I Will Always Love You,” while his manager wanted half of the publishing rights in exchange for making the recording.
It was a decision that deeply hurt Dolly at the time.
She has recalled that she cried after the deal fell apart.
But history would later reveal something extraordinary.
In 1992, Whitney Houston recorded “I Will Always Love You” for the film The Bodyguard.
Her version transformed Dolly’s song into one of the most famous hits in the world.
And Dolly retained the rights to her composition.
But this is where another layer of the Elvis story emerges.
Dolly once said that Priscilla Presley told her Elvis had sung “I Will Always Love You” to her around the time they left the courthouse after their divorce.
It is a touching story, but the timeline requires caution.
Elvis and Priscilla’s divorce was finalized in October 1973, while Dolly’s recording of “I Will Always Love You” was released in 1974. Therefore, the story that Elvis sang the song at the time of their divorce cannot be treated as an independently verified event from contemporary records. It is known primarily through Dolly’s later account of what Priscilla told her.
And that is precisely why this story needs to be told carefully.
We have grounds to say that Dolly Parton stated that Elvis wanted to record “I Will Always Love You.”
We also have grounds to say that Dolly recalled Elvis being very fond of “Coat of Many Colors” and trying to record it.
But we should not turn those recollections into a complete studio history that the surviving historical record does not provide.
There is no official Elvis recording of either song.
There is no complete publicly available record establishing exactly what every conversation between Elvis, Parker, and Dolly involved.
And we should not claim that “Coat of Many Colors” was the only song Elvis truly wanted to record, completely replacing the “I Will Always Love You” story. Dolly’s own 1989 account suggests that she regarded these as two related but separate stories.
What is clearer is that both songs carried a deeply personal imprint of Dolly.
“Coat of Many Colors” tells the story of her childhood poverty, the coat her mother made from scraps of fabric, and the feelings surrounding family, difference, and self-worth. Dolly has described the song as a deeply personal reflection of her life.
And “I Will Always Love You” became one of the most important compositions of her career.
Elvis never left the world an official recording of either song.
And perhaps that is exactly what has allowed this story to endure for so long.
Because in music, sometimes the things that never happened become the most fascinating.
We know Elvis wanted to sing Dolly Parton’s music.
We know Dolly faced a difficult decision over publishing rights.
We know “I Will Always Love You” later became a global phenomenon through Whitney Houston’s voice.
And we know that “Coat of Many Colors” also appears to have caught Elvis’s attention, at least according to accounts from Dolly and people who were close to him.
But there is one question we will never be able to answer with certainty:
If Elvis had actually recorded one of those two songs, what would it have sounded like?
It is the recording that never existed.
A voice we never got to hear on those songs.
A moment in music history that survives only through recollections.
And perhaps that is what makes the Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton story one of the most intriguing “what ifs” in music history.
Not because we know exactly what happened.
But because we know that some things may have happened — and history never gave us the chance to hear them.