How did Whitney Houston come to record...

[TONY]

How did Whitney Houston come to record "I Will Always Love You" for "The Bodyguard" ?

Here is the story as told in Entertainment Weekly Magazine, December 21, 2012.

[the Scribe]

Thanks for all the detail on this. I kind of knew the story but not the involvement of Dolly and some others. Contrary to just about everyone here I like Whitney's version as over the top as some here see it. I think it was appropriate for the dramatic setting it was to appear in. Linda's understated version is quite authentic and heartfelt but it should not take anything away from a different interpretation.

[erik]

Quote by ronstadtfanaz:

I think it was appropriate for the dramatic setting it was to appear in. Linda's understated version is quite authentic and heartfelt but it should not take anything away from a different interpretation.

Some do like it, and some don't. I just happen to be one of those that don't. I felt that W.H. really overdid it, and that opinion hasn't changed in 24 years. But what ticks me off further is that very few stories (aside from this one) about "I Will Always Love You" even bother to mention the fact that Linda herself did this song at all, let alone first.

[Tony]

Well, of course Dolly did it first. Linda was the first to amp the song up a bit. Whitney Houston's vocal is based on the Ronstadt version, just amped up to the nth degree to make it an anthem worthy of the movie, and in that Whitney definitely succeeded.

This article is written from a point of view reverent of the Whitney Houston version. I notice that Kevin Costner's oral history is not recorded here. Kevin is the one whose idea it was to use the Dolly song for the movie, so his remembrance would have been helpful.  I thought that Whitney was against using the song at first because she thought of it as a country song and did not have the vision to see it as more until she heard the direction Ronstadt was taking the song.

I never really thought of the last verse very much. At the time I thought it was good of Ronstadt to drop that last verse because it was a bit corny and weepy, but Whitney Houston really took command of that last verse and drove the song home.  That is my thinking now.  At the time, I didn't like the Houston version at all-- to me her performance sounded like someone who really only loved herself, much like The Greatest Love of All.

Dolly, Linda, Whitney- they all did very good versions of the song in the style that pleased them. I like Linda's recording, but I've never considered it one of her "greatest" performances.

[Tony]

One week later in Entertainment Weekly, December 28, 2012, issue, there is another

article about the song "I Will Always Love You" ---

[the Scribe]