Dolly Parton Wrote a Song About Elvis Presley That Hasn’t Been Released Yet, ‘It Sounds Great’

Dolly Parton might be more country than Elvis Presley, but she still found the Memphis singer inspirational. Elvis was an influential musician in Parton’s life, and she was thrilled to have gained his attention early in her career. While she never met the king of rock, she wrote a song about him that she has yet to release. 

Dolly Parton wrote an unreleased song about Elvis Presley called ‘I Dreamed of Elvis’

Parton always wanted to meet Elvis, but it never happened. The closest she ever came to meeting the “Heartbreak Hotel” singer was when he nearly recorded a cover of “I Will Always Love You”. Unfortunately, Parton had to turn him down as his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, demanded all or at least half of the publishing rights. In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, the “Jolene” singer said she was sorry it didn’t work out.

“I didn’t know Elvis. I never met him,” Parton explained. “I was going to meet him for the first time when he was coming to the studio to sing ‘I Will Always Love You,’ which didn’t work out, as you know, because Colonel Tom Parker, his manager, wanted half the publishing. But when he was going to do my song, I was gonna meet him, and I’m sorry, I didn’t get to meet him.”

“I Will Always Love You” was later covered by Whitney Houston, who made the song iconic with her powerhouse vocal performance. Houston’s version was wildly successful and has made many people unaware of who originally wrote it. Still, Parton would have loved to have heard Elvis’ version and even wrote a song imagining what could have been. 

“If it had been a new song, if I’d had just written something for [Elvis Presley], I might have reconsidered that,” she shared. “I’ve still always wanted him to sing it. I wrote a song later called ‘I Dreamed About Elvis’, and it was about dreaming about Elvis singing that song. And I had an Elvis soundalike to come in and sing the Elvis part, and it sounds great! Maybe one day I’ll put that out.”

Parton related to Elvis because of his faith

Dolly Parton never knew Elvis Presley, but she felt he was “kin.” In a 1978 interview with Playboy, Parton said she related to Elvis so much for many reasons. She found him to be “very loving, very emotional, very sensitive, very giving, very humble, thankful, grateful.” However, she said the Elvis attribute she related to most was his connection to his faith. 

“How he felt about God and religion was always somethin’ I related to a lot, because I know he was brought up with his mother in the Assembly of God,” Parton said. “It was a real free-spirited, shoutin’ church. I watched and heard how he reacted to Gospel music and how he loved that the best of all and how he almost seemed to feel he had a callin’ to do somethin’ different and maybe more spiritual than what he actually was doin’, but you know, he never got a chance to try.”