I Will Always Love You

I may very well be burned in effigy for writing this, but I stand by my opinion. After all, that's all it is - an opinion.

I believe the album, "I Will Always Love You" by Celine Dion was too hyped up for its own good.

I'm not saying I dislike Celine Dion's voice. She was amazing. She could have sung straight from a dictionary, and it would sounded like a masterpiece.

What I'm saying is that this album contained one sappy song after another - on and on - and I'm not a big fan of it.

I don't know who chose the songs. I suppose it was Celine, although she did not write any of them.

I'm going to warn you. This is a LOT of music. Here they are, by order on the album:

1. I Will Always Love You

2. Because You Loved Me

3. My Heart Will Go On

4. It’s All Coming Back to Me Now

5. If You Asked Me To

6. That’s the Way It Is

7. Where Does My Heart Beat Now

8. All by Myself

9. Beauty and the Beast

10. A New Day Has Come

11. I Drove All Night

12. I Surrender

13. To Love You More

14. I Love You

15. Alone

16. Taking Chances

17. Falling Into You

18. Let’s Talk About Love

19. Tell Him

20. Brahms’ Lullaby

21. Zora Sourit

22. Ave Maria

23. Terre

24. Des Milliers de Baisers

25. Eyes on Me

26. Right in Front of You

27. Le Miracle

28. Just Walk Away

29. Loved Me Back to Life

30. Have You Ever Been in Love

31. Tellement J’ai D’Amour Pour Toi

32. Contre Nature

33. Call the Man

34. Mon Homme

I'll give her the fact that she put a lot of music on an album. Even if you aren't familiar with the songs, just reading the titles will give you a severe case of "sap-itis."

I'm not going to discuss every piece, but I do want to spend time on the title song, "I Will Always Love You." It was written and sung beautifully by Dolly Parton. She wrote it as a farewell to her mentor and business partner Porter Wagoner

Being the classy lady that she is, Dolly said of Celine's version, "She sang the hell out of it." I’m paraphrasing as I couldn't find the direct quote, so I'm going from memory.

The thing that bugs me the most about this is that so often the songwriter gets the shaft. Celine won awards and went platinum while Dolly stood quietly in the background. I came across an article, shared below, which declares:

The lyrics of "I Will Always Love You" by Céline Dion are a tribute to a significant person in the singer's life who has been a pillar of strength, support, and inspiration.

(See below)

The song was claimed to be penned by Celine. I’m sure this author isn’t the first to think so.

Another song on the album that hits my sap gag reflex is My Heart Will Go On. It was made famous by the movie, Titanic. Sorry, Celine, but I can't even bring myself to link it, nor could I stomach listening to the whole song. It’s just “oocky.” Who cares if your heart will go on, and on, and on…?

The songs on this album tend to be long and similar, although, admittedly, I don’t speak French, so I have only the sound of the music to go by when she speaks it.

I do love some of the more serious work that Celine did - especially when she was paired with other artists, like Andre Bocelli, Barbara Streisand, and Luciano Pavarotti.

This bunch of sap didn't do it for me. The lyrics are syrupy. They're all about love or love lost, which isn’t the issue for me. They're not BAD songs, they're just over-played and annoyingly sap laden. The pop melodies start to sound very familiar after listening to just a few of the tracks.

Put this syrup on some pancakes and feed it to someone else. I’ll never be hungry for the likes of this album.

No apologies.

Just opinion.