For years, the world watched Elvis Presley unravel in the early 1970s—Vegas excess, tabloid chaos, and a personal life laid bare. What most fans didn’t see was the quiet ritual he clung to every day during his divorce: one song, played over and over—not for show, but for survival.
That song was I Will Always Love You.
The Courthouse Steps, Santa Monica, 1973
Priscilla Presley recalls the song’s most intimate moment—not in a studio, not on a stage, but on October 9, 1973, just moments after their divorce was finalized at a Santa Monica courthouse.
As they descended the courthouse steps, still holding hands, Elvis began softly singing Dolly Parton’s lyrics—just for Priscilla. Not performing. Not dramatizing. Simply singing.
Priscilla later shared this memory with Dolly Parton herself, who admitted the story brought her to tears. For Elvis, the song became a vessel for emotions he could no longer speak. For Priscilla, hearing it then was shattering.
“It made me cry on the steps,” she told Dolly.
Why Elvis Never Recorded It
Elvis didn’t just love the song—he longed to record it. Plans were quietly underway by 1974 for his version, one many believe could have rivaled any interpretation to come.
But it never happened.
The reason wasn’t Elvis—it was business.
Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’s manager, demanded 50% of the publishing rights as a condition. For Dolly Parton, that was a line she could not cross. The song symbolized her financial independence and her family’s future. She refused—and spent the night in tears.
The decision preserved her ownership, but it also left the song a ghost in Elvis’s catalog: deeply loved, never captured.
Elvis Owned the Feeling, Not the Paperwork
Years later, when Whitney Houston recorded the song for The Bodyguard, it became a global phenomenon—powerful, triumphant, and heartbreakingly cinematic.
But Priscilla’s revelation reframes it entirely. For Elvis, I Will Always Love You wasn’t about empowerment or goodbye—it was about surrender. About loving someone enough to let go, even when it broke him.
Dolly owned the song.
Whitney owned the moment.
But on the saddest day of his life, Elvis Presley owned the emotion. And that’s where the King truly belongs.