PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Lee Habeeb, creator and host of Our American Stories, a podcast and weekly syndicated radio show.
Dolly Parton grew up dirt-poor to a loving family in the mountains of Tennessee in a place called Locust Ridge. Whitney Houston grew up well-to-do in New Jersey's biggest city, Newark, the child of musical royalty. Her mother, Cissy, was a Grammy-winning gospel artist, her first cousin was Dionne Warwick, and her distant cousin was opera legend Leontyne Price.
The two could not have come from more different backgrounds, but one of pop music's greatest love songs, "I Will Always Love You," brought them together. How that happened, and how the song came to be, is a remarkable story, one that includes Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker; actor Kevin Costner; and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The song, written and recorded by Parton in 1973, was not about the loss of a romantic love. It was instead written about the end of a long-standing professional relationship. Porter Wagoner, a country star well-known for his gaudy attire and coiffed hair, gave Parton her big break in show businesses, signing her to a long-term deal on his nationally syndicated musical variety show. The two enjoyed great success performing and singing together, creating a succession of country hits.
But as time passed, Parton wanted her freedom, creatively and financially. She wanted to leave the man who'd done so much for her career, but how could she do it with grace and gratitude?
"We were going around and around with that," Parton told The Tennessean in 2015 about ending her partnership with Wagoner. "So, finally, I thought, How am I gonna make him understand how much I appreciate everything, but that I have to go? He won't listen to me. He's not listening to the reason why I want to go!
"So I went home and I thought, Well, what do you do best? You write songs. So I sat down, and out of a very emotional place I wrote this song."
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BIO: Lee Habeeb, creator and host of Our American Stories, co-founded Laura Ingraham’s national radio show in 2001, moved to Salem Media Group in 2008 as Vice President of Content overseeing their nationally syndicated lineup, and launched Our American Stories in 2016. He is a University of Virginia School of Law graduate, and writes a weekly column for Newsweek.
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Lee Habeeb, creator and host of Our American Stories, a podcast and weekly syndicated radio show.