Because of ‘The Bodyguard,’ Dolly Parton Will Always Love ‘You’

Ever wonder what a songwriter makes for a hit song?

You could ask Dolly Parton, but she’s too busy counting the money coming in from “I Will Always Love You,” the song that she wrote and first recorded in the early ‘70s and that’s now setting sales records for the version by Whitney Houston featured in the movie “The Bodyguard.”

Try this on for size: Even before Houston released her version, the song had been played on the radio more than 2 million times, thanks to Parton’s own success with it--she scored a No. 1 country hit for the song in 1974, and then hit No. 1 again in 1982 when she sang it in the movie “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”

That means that--for radio play alone on the song before Houston came along--Parton’s writer’s royalties were somewhere in the vicinity of . . .

$1 million.

One insider estimates that the the Houston version could accumulate another 500,000 plays by next Christmas. At current rates, that means that Parton will be stuffing into her stockings at least . . .

$240,000

And that doesn’t even count additional take for future airing of the film on TV, or for video sales.

Now let’s talk about record sales. This is also complicated, but “The Bodyguard” soundtrack has now passed the 6-million sales mark, while the single has racked up more than 4 million.

The total take for Parton is estimated to be at least . . .

$650,000

In other words, you’re not going to find Parton panhandling by the entrance of Dollywood any time soon.

Where you will find her is receiving the Country Music Assn.’s first “Country Music Honors” award during the CBS-TV special “A Country Music Celebration” on Feb. 6.

And you’ll also find her back on the charts in her own right. Parton’s next album, “Slow Dancing With the Moon,” will be released on Feb. 23, with guest stars including Kathy Mattea, Mary-Chapin Carpenter and Tanya Tucker. And joining Parton on the album’s first single, “Romeo,” is a guy who knows a thing or two about selling records: Billy Ray Cyrus.

Now, let’s see, if this sells as well as “I Will Always Love You,” Parton will make . . .