‘The Bodyguard’: Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ Nearly Didn’t Make the Soundtrack
It’s been 30 years since Whitney Houston made her feature film debut in The Bodyguard. The film catapulted Houston into being an even bigger global icon. Its accompanying soundtrack was equally as successful, with the signature ballad “I Will Always Love You” playing on radio stations around the world. Ironically, the song almost didn’t make the soundtrack.
Another song was selected before ‘I Will Always Love You’
In The Bodyguard, Houston stars as an international pop icon with a crazed stalker. Coming up with the right music for the song was a challenge due to Houston’s mega-stardom and wanting to produce music appropriate for the film, separate from Houston as an individual artist.
In an interview with The New York Post, the cast and crew behind the successful production gave some behind-the-scenes secrets on creating the accompanying soundtrack. As it turns out, the movie’s signature song, “I Will Always Love You,” was not the first choice.
“She was supposed to sing ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,’” Maureen Crowe, music supervisor of the movie, told The Post. It was Jimmy Ruffin’s 1966 Motown classic. “But when you slow that song down, it’s like a dirge. And it had been covered for ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ [by Paul Young in 1991], and it was climbing the charts as we were shooting ‘The Bodyguard.’ So we couldn’t use that song because it would just seem like we ripped it off from ‘Fried Green Tomatoes.’ ”
Who chose ‘I Will Always Love You’
After learning that “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” was no longer an option, Crowe had to develop another song that would exude the same tone and feeling. She suggested, “I Will Always Love You.” Crowe initially heard Linda Ronstadt’s 1975 remake of the song.
Dolly Parton recorded the original in 1973. Once it was decided upon, getting Houston to make a country song her own and make it crossover to appeal to all audiences proved to be the task. But Costner came up with the idea that would change everything and make Houston’s version the most iconic. He suggested that Houston sing the first 42 seconds of the song a cappella. Because no other song had opened that way previously, there were some concerns that Houston’s version wouldn’t be well-received on the radio.
Luckily, the song had the opposite effect. “There was some nervousness about if we go with it as as a single, radio may think, ‘People will think we’re off the air,’” Crowe explained, noting that Houston recorded live with her band in a few takes on set. “And that turned out not to be a problem at all. It exploded on the radio.”
The song exploded
“I Will Always Love You” spent 14 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. It was eventually certified Diamond by the RIAA, making Houston’s first single to sell 10 million copies. The song also became the best-selling single by a woman in the U.S. Houston won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1994 for her version, and embarked on a sold-out world tour named after the film.
