Miley Cyrus is celebrating 10 years since the release of her hit song, "Wrecking Ball," and her godmother, the one and only Dolly Parton, is looking back on the release of the song as well. In an interview with Seeker Music, Parton recalls the very first time she heard Cyrus' would-be Billboard Hot 100 No. 1. She says it was a similar experience to when she first heard Whitney Houston's version of her own classic song, "I Will Always Love You."
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"I remember the first time I heard 'Wrecking Ball.' It hit me the same way it did the first time I heard 'I Will Always Love You' by Whitney Houston," Parton said. "I was driving, heard that one, and I almost wrecked. And when I heard 'Wrecking Ball,' I almost wrecked again! I thought, when it started into that chorus, I thought it hit me like a wrecking ball. I thought, 'Well, how great can a song be?'"
Parton has often told the story about the first time she heard Houston's rendition of her song, which was recorded for the Kevin Costner-led flick, The Bodyguard. The singer said she was simply driving down the road, and when the song came on the radio, she almost didn't recognize it at first. Parton says when Houston then launched into the high-powered chorus, she had a physical reaction and had to pull over to the side of the road.
"My heart just started to beat so fast and then when she got into 'I Will Always Love You,' when that opened up, and I realized that was my song, it was the most overwhelming thing," she once said during The Oprah Conversation on Apple TV+. (Quote via Yahoo). "I was shot so full of adrenaline and energy, I had to pull off, because I was afraid that I would wreck, so I pulled over quick as I could to listen to that whole song. I could not believe how she did that. I mean, how beautiful it was that my little song had turned into that, so that was a major, major thing."
Cyrus is singing about her younger years — including her "Wrecking Ball" era — in her newly released song, "Used to Be Young."
