Despite being unable to read sheet music, Parton played several instruments including the banjo, harp, piano and saxophone.
She had her first number one hit – and first Grammy nomination – with the song Joshua in 1971 and finally left The Porter Wagoner Show in 1974 to concentrate on her solo career.
To say goodbye to him, she wrote I Will Always Love You, a song that many think is about two lovers parting ways.
“That’s the prettiest song I ever heard,” Wagoner cried when he first heard it, her website says.
The same year, Elvis Presley was set to record a cover of the song, but Parton pulled the deal when his manager demanded half of the songwriting rights.
She cried all night at the difficult decision, and Priscilla Presley later told her that Elvis sang the song to her during their divorce.
In 1992, Whitney Houston transformed it into a now-iconic power ballad.
Parton said she was driving when she first heard the cover and had to pull over: “When I heard her go from the a cappella into the music part, I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack, it was one of the most overwhelming things.”
Houston’s cover of Parton’s “sad little country song” was one of the proudest moments of her life, she said.
Parton re-recorded the song for The best Little Whorehouse in Texas, a 1982 film in which she starred in and was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actress.
