Dolly Parton’s $10 Million Royalty Windfall From Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You

Dolly Parton wrote and kept the publishing rights to I Will Always Love You, while Whitney Houston’s 1992 Bodyguard recording earned Dolly an estimated $10 million in royalties during the 1990s; she later invested part of the proceeds in an office complex in a historically Black Nashville neighborhood to honor Whitney. Dolly famously refused Elvis Presley’s offer to share publishing rights, keeping full control. Houston’s cover is Diamond-certified, Parton’s rendition is Platinum, and the song has more than 176 million streams on Spotify.