#47: I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CFTR
Peak Month: September-October 1982
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #53
YouTube: “I Will Always Love You”
Lyrics: “I Will Always Love You”
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946, the fourth of twelve children, in Pitman Center, Tennessee. Parton said her family was “dirt poor”. Her father paid missionary Dr. Robert F. Thomas with a sack of cornmeal for delivering her. Dolly’s mother, Avie Lee, was just 35 by the time the she gave birth to her twelfth child. The family lived in a one-room cabin on Little Pigeon River. Her father “Lee” Parton Sr., was a sharecropper who also worked in construction and later started a small tobacco farm. Dolly Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area. By ten, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. Parton made her first professional recording at age 13 when she recorded “Puppy Love” for Goldband Records. The lyrics were distinct from the Paul Anka hit single with the same title in the winter of 1959-60. After making musical connections while performing on The Cas Walker Show, Parton and her uncle, Bill Owens, managed to get a guest spot on the Grand Ole Opry on July 25, 1959. Jimmy C. Newman agreed to give up one of his regular Saturday night spots to allow Parton to perform. Parton was introduced by Johnny Cash before she performed a cover of George Jones’ “You Gotta Be My Baby” and received three encores.