Throwback Thursday: Whitney Houston – “I Will Always Love You”

Throwback Thursday: Whitney Houston – “I Will Always Love You”

Tomorrow marks 10 years since Whitney Houston’s passing, so in honor of her life and career, let’s take a look back at her crowning achievement.

Back in ’92, Whitney starred in The Bodyguard opposite Kevin Costner. In addition to acting duties, Whitney was responsible for six of the 13 tracks on the movie’s soundtrack, including a cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” which was the lead single from the project. While a cover was always part of the plan, it wasn’t always going to be “I Will Always Love You” — Whitney was supposed to cover Jimmy Ruffin’s “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” until her co-star suggested the Dolly Parton classic. As the story is told, he played the Linda Ronstadt’s version of the song.

Whitney Houston’s take on “I Will Always Love You” is basically a soul-infused refinement of the Ronstadt version. Produced by David Foster, it had the ’90s big ballad sound Whitney was known for, and with her vocals, the song was taken to places every other version prior and afterwards has failed to reach. Oddly enough, Whitney’s label pushed back at the idea of starting a song with an acapella vocal, but after both the singer and Kevin Costner pushed back, they let it rock. Today, that almost-scrapped intro is often cited as one of the most remarkable parts of the song.

Because Whitney was basically covering a cover, she almost didn’t include the bridge on “I Will Always Love You,” which is excluded on the Ronstadt. As legend has it, Dolly Parton somehow found out that Whitney basing her cover on the Ronstadt version, so she called David Foster to make sure it was included because she thought it was important to the song. And thank goodness she did.

Nearly 30 years after its release, “I Will Always Love You” remains popular and is widely seen as the gold standard for vocal performance. It is Whitney Houston’s biggest hit by far and one of the biggest hits the industry has ever seen, ruling the Billboard Hot 100 for a then-unprecedented 14 weeks and reaching No. 1 in just about every country that tracked music airplay and sales. Also, it won every single award it was nominated for, including Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Record of the Year at the 36th Grammy Awards.

We didn’t get to have Whitney for long enough, but in her time on earth, she left an indelible mark, and for that, I will always love her.