"I Will Always Love You" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston. It is a cover of the original song written and recorded by Dolly Parton, and was inspired by a version recorded by Linda Ronstadt. It was released on November 2, 1992, by Arista Records as the lead single from the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, Houston's film acting debut. Her version was produced by Canadian musician David Foster. The song was a global success, topping the singles charts in 34 countries. Considered one of the most famous and iconic songs of all time, it has sold 24 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling single by a female artist of all time as well as one of the best-selling singles of all time. It was also the world's best-selling single of 1992. The music video for "I Will Always Love You" is the first 20th century video by a solo act to reach 1 billion views on YouTube. As of September 2026, it has reached over 1.9 billion views, making it one of the most watched videos of all time.
Houston won Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards for the song. A live performance was included on the 1999 release Divas Live '99, and a 1994 performance of the song at Houston's acclaimed and history-making concert at Johannesburg, South Africa, where she became the first international artist to tour the region following the abolishing of apartheid and the presidency of Nelson Mandela, was included on the 2014 CD/DVD release of Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances.
Houston's version of the song appeared at number eight on NME's Greatest No 1 Singles in History list. It was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2004, Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" placed at number 65 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. It was also ranked at number 22 on The Guardian's list of Britain's favorite 100 songs, published in May 2002. In February 2014, the song placed at number six on Billboard's list of the Top 50 Love Songs of All Time. A year later, in 2015, Rod Couch ranked the song as the number one song of the rock era in his book, The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015. In addition, the song has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and was culturally preserved by the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.
The single is cited as one of Houston's signature songs.
Contents
Background
In April 1991, Houston announced that she was to co-star with Kevin Costner in a film titled The Bodyguard. The decision to do the film by Houston initially "didn't impress" Clive Davis, the head of Houston's record label Arista, describing the film's first draft of the script as a "pure thriller", later admitting that he was "nervous" of the film's aspects and what it would do for Houston's film career. Due to Houston's worldwide fame as a music superstar, Davis felt the idea of Houston doing the film "without really previously ever testing her acting chops... was speculative. It was risky. You don't come fully confident that she can do everything. And will the script be up to the mettle of somebody who would become the best-selling vocalist of all time?" Davis wrote a letter to the film's producers, which included Costner, where he told them of his concern of having Houston in the film without any music. The producers agreed with Davis and Houston, in a deal with the film's distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures, signed a deal for control of the soundtrack album and back royalties from each sale the album would make. Houston eventually agreed to record six songs, five of which would be prominently featured in scenes on the film. According to Canadian producer David Foster, he met Costner at the premier of his 1990 film, Dances with Wolves and claimed Costner told him that he would be the right man to produce the soundtrack for the film.
Work on the soundtrack of the film began in Los Angeles that November, the same month where principal photography on the film took place. Between November 1991 and February 1992, in between filming the movie, Houston recorded four songs. The songs included the rock song "Queen of the Night", a song Houston herself co-wrote, a pop-soul rendition of the gospel hymn "Jesus Loves Me" and the pop ballads "Run to You" and "I Have Nothing", the latter two becoming Houston's first collaborations with Foster. For the fifth song, Houston, Costner and the film's music supervisor Maureen Crowe searched for the song they feel could be the "key moment in the plot" of the film. That March, it was suggested by Costner that they cover the Jimmy Ruffin soul ballad, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted". Neither Houston nor Crowe, however, felt the song was appropriate for a song to be performed at the end of the film.
When the actor suggested the song to be recorded in a slowed down arrangement, Crowe told The Telegraph in 2022 that the arrangement "was like a dirge: 'Happiness is just an illusion, filled with sadness and confusion...'", adding jokingly, "you wanna kill yourself at the end of it!" Houston herself reportedly told Foster that the song "[didn't] really fit [her]" and, Foster added, "didn't have the 'meat'... for her vocals in a final act song". Houston suggested, politely to Foster, to "try and make one more demo. And make it a little more... interesting?" After British singer Paul Young's rendition of the song from the soundtrack of the film, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), reached the top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 that month and became an inescapable radio hit, they agreed to search for another song. According to Crowe, she felt the song chosen had to "answer the question: what would you sing to somebody that you had an affair with, who had just taken a bullet for you and had saved your son's life, but you are going to go in completely separate directions after your brief affair, and you will probably never see him again? So, bittersweet memories. I always say when you're trying to find a song: what does the song have to do in the story? And if you ask enough questions, the song will present itself."
Recording
Crowe later stated that she considered "California oldies", songs from artists such as the Eagles and Neil Young. Houston, who was the executive producer of the soundtrack, suggested an R&B song in Crowe's retelling of the script. Despite film producers being adamant of "not wanting country [music], because Hollywood has a feeling that country makes it something else", Crowe picked out California-based singer Linda Ronstadt's 1975 rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You", from her album, Prisoner in Disguise; Houston agreed to record it.
There were two recordings of the song. The first was recorded live at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach around March 1992 with Houston and members of her live band.
Costner suggested Houston sing the first verse a cappella. Though Foster told Costner and Houston that he thought the idea of starting the song a cappella was "ridiculous", he reluctantly agreed as he had ideas of adding strings and horns later in the song's studio recording. Costner later explained to Kelly Clarkson his reasoning behind the acapella intro with regard to the plot line of his and Houston's characters in the film: "Whitney was doing almost an apology moment at that point... And what better way to let someone know they really mean what they’re singing to you than when they say, 'I don’t even need to have music behind it. Let me sing to you what I feel about you.'" Though filmmakers already had a backing track for her to sing along to, Houston still suggested using members of her live band so "she could hold notes out to her liking and perform the ballad in a more organic way." The singer reportedly recorded the performance after midnight because, according to Foster, "she was filming all day. She was incredible. Like a laser beam. Like a racehorse – she would just step up to the microphone and go."
Houston's mother Cissy later wrote that she cried as she witnessed Houston performing it in Miami. According to Foster, Cissy leaned to him and told him "you're witnessing greatness right now, I hope you know that." In addition to the performance, a rock-arranged recording of the song, sung by John Doe of the punk rock band X, could be heard playing on the jukebox in a scene where Houston dances with Costner.
A studio recording commenced on April 22 at Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles. Prior to recording, Foster was contacted by Parton over the recording and the songwriter suggested Houston add the third verse from her 1974 original version. Parton stated because the third verse in her original version was a recitation, country radio programmers at the time chose not to play it, cutting it out to go straight into the final chorus. As a result, when the song was covered by Ronstadt and other singers, the recitation wasn't used. Parton suggested Houston to fully sing the third verse. According to Foster, Houston learned the third verse within several minutes and added her own vocal arrangement to the verse.
Arrangement
Houston's rendition of "I Will Always Love You" is a plaintive R&B love ballad with pop, soul and gospel elements, arranged by Foster and Houston. The song starts off a cappella and remains that way for around 45 seconds until the chorus, in which by then, strings and keyboard flourishes are added in. The first verse and chorus are sung in a softer range by Houston while the second verse and chorus features restrained belting.
The song has an alto saxophone solo by Kirk Whalum and drumming from Ricky Lawson, including a one-note solo tom on the drum that leads to a key change and a final chorus, sung with Houston's full range.
The song then slows back down with Houston singing softer again and ends with a vocal soprano wail on the word "you", which Houston sustains for eleven seconds with her range going from F♯–B–D♯.
Sheet music for Houston's version of this song provided by Hal Leonard Music Publishing shows the key of A major and a 44 in common time with a tempo of "freely" at 66-68 beats per minute. After the acapella intro, the song follows a chord progression of A–F♯m–D7–E–A–F♯m–C♯–Bm7–A2. Three minutes and thirty-one seconds later, it shifts to B major and the chord progression shifts to Bm–G♯–Em7–F♯–B–G♯m–F♯–B2–D♯.
Houston's vocal range in the song goes from the low note of F♯3 to the high note of G♯5 while Foster's piano range in the song goes from the low note of C♯1 to the high note of D♯6.
Critical reception
Houston's rendition of "I Will Always Love You" received universal acclaim from music critics, being now regarded as one of her "signature'' songs. Larry Flick of Billboard magazine wrote that the song is "bolstered by a remarkably restrained (and ultimately effective) vocal by Houston. She builds to dramatic, heartfelt conclusion that makes sense, given the unusually slow-building created by producer David Foster." Randy Clark of Cashbox noted that "the unstoppable voice and unquestionable talent of Whitney Houston will no doubt come roaring back onto the charts with this cover". Amy Linden of Entertainment Weekly said it "is artistically satisfying and uncharacteristically hip for the MOR songbird." John Martinucci of Gavin Report asserted that Houston "delivers a powerful rendition that reminds us of her natural abilities as a singer with or without musical accompaniment." Stephen Holden of The New York Times called it a "magnificent rendition", commenting,Houston transforms a plaintive country ballad into a towering pop-gospel assertion of lasting devotion to a departing lover. Her voice breaking and tensing, she treats the song as a series of emotional bursts in a steady climb toward a final full-out declamation. Along the way, her virtuosic gospel embellishments enhance the emotion and never seem merely ornamental. Peter Stanton of Smash Hits commented, "A slow intro moulds into a crescendo of huggy-kissy-smoochiness that could melt the heart of the yeti of Northern Siberia." Writing for USA Today on November 17, 1992, James T. Jones IV labeled it a "tour-de-force", and added "[Houston] gives a 31⁄2-star [out of four] performance. Where Dolly Parton's original 'I Will Always Love You' was plaintive and tear-stained, Houston's is gospel-infused and dramatic."
The key change after the third verse drew much mention. Chris Willman of the Los Angeles Times commented that the singer "has the goods to deliver on the tune's haunting beauty and resists overpowering it – until the finale, when the key change and stratospheric notes drain all the heart-rending sadness out of the song and make it sound like just another anthem of survival." But more typical is this 2004 take in The Guardian, in which Glenn Waldron calls the modulation "all-conquering, all-powerful".
Commercial performance
The song debuted at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 14, 1992 becoming the "Hot Shot Debut" of the week,, rose to number 12 in its second week, and became Houston's tenth number-one song on November 28, unseating The Heights' "How Do You Talk to an Angel" from the top spot. Due to an "explosion" in sales and radio airplay, it was the fastest single to rise to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time since Paul and Linda McCartney's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" in 1971. Houston tied with Madonna for the most number one singles by a female artist at the time. It spent 14 consecutive weeks at the top of the US Billboard Hot 100, which at the time was a record.
It became Houston's longest run atop the chart, surpassing her previous record of three weeks with "Greatest Love of All" in 1986. It is also the longest running number-one single from a soundtrack album. It holds the record for the most consecutive weeks at number one in the US by a solo artist, sharing the title with Elton John's "Candle in the Wind '97." It is the longest running female consecutive number one single in history, earning Houston a Guinness World Record.
The song also dominated other Billboard charts, spending 14 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Single Sales chart, and 11 weeks at number one on its Hot 100 Airplay chart. The song remained at number one on the Mainstream Top 40 chart for nine consecutive weeks. It was Houston's first single on the chart and her first number one.
The song debuted at number 58 on the Hot R&B Singles chart on November 14, 1992 and topped the Hot R&B Singles chart on December 5, displacing "If I Ever Fall in Love" by Shai, and would spend eleven consecutive weeks at number one, becoming Houston's sixth number one single on the chart and also her longest-running chart-topper there. It established another chart record at the time, overtaking both "I Can't Stop Loving You" by Ray Charles and "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye as the longest-running number one single since Billboard merged its previously separate R&B sales and airplay charts in 1958.
It debuted at number 28 on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart on November 14, 1992, becoming the Hot Shot Debut of the week. Just six weeks later, on December 19, it topped the chart, displacing Michael Bolton's rendition of "To Love Somebody", where it would stay for five weeks, becoming her longest-running number one on that chart.
Accolades
"I Will Always Love You" won the 1994 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Houston's third win in the latter category after earlier wins in 1986 and 1988. During the Grammy Award telecast, Dolly Parton and David Foster presented the latter Grammy to Houston. The song was ranked the number one single of 1993 simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B Singles year-end charts, the first time in nine years that a single accomplished the feat after "When Doves Cry" by Prince back in 1984. It was also the first song by a woman to accomplish this milestone. In addition, it received Favorite Pop/Rock Song and Favorite Soul/R&B Song awards at the 21st American Music Awards, which was the first record by a solo artist to win both categories, and the second overall in AMA history behind "Endless Love" by Lionel Richie & Diana Ross in 1982. "I Will Always Love You" won two Japan Gold Disc Awards in 1993 for International Song of the Year, and a 1994 International Song of the Year Special Award for Japanese sales of over one million units.
In 2009, the ballad was ranked the 17th most played song in public places in Great Britain by Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL). In February 2013, the song was voted the number one love song of all time by The Harris Poll. In 2019, "I Will Always Love You" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2021, "I Will Always Love You" was listed at number 94 on the updated list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2023, "I Will Always Love You" was listed at number 60 on Billboard's list of the 500 Best Pop Songs of All Time, Houston's second highest-ranked song on the list.
Music video
Shooting and synopsis
The single's music video was shot at a Hollywood soundstage in Los Angeles around October 1992, directed by English photographer and music video director Nick Brandt and produced by Rob Newman. At the time of its shooting, Houston was four months pregnant with daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, as a result she decided to shoot her scenes at the soundstage.
After the video starts with Houston's character in the film, Rachel Marron, singing the opening acapella bars at the end of The Bodyguard, its basic plot was of Houston, dressed in a dark blue suit, sitting at an empty theater in a chair singing the song with the spotlight shining on her, singing of her love. Houston's scenes were interspersed with scenes from the film and gives the viewer the experience of reliving the moments with Houston. The different scenes of the film were matched by re-enactments at the theater.
During the third verse, Houston closes her eyes and after the camera zooms in on her face, the drum beat drops and she opens her eyes and sings the chorus after the key change and the theater itself transforms into an open-air snowy field, which is meant to be at Fallen Leaf Lake, California, where The Bodyguard's boat scene was filmed. By the ending, the scene returns back to the empty theater.
Brandt's initial interpretation of the music video was said to be more artistic with the Houston scenes being from an isolated performance than what appeared in the final editing by Clive Davis and Warner Bros Pictures executives, who insisted on including scenes from The Bodyguard.
An upset Brandt felt the final editing of the video made it look more like a "commercial movie trailer". As a result of the edits, Brandt used the name Alan Smithee instead of his own name, a traditional Hollywood pseudonym used by directors who disowned their final cuts.
Release
The video immediately premiered on MTV to heavy rotation on December 5, 1992 and became one of her most popular music videos to date, also earning heavy rotation on every music video channel, including BET and VH1.
On October 24, 2020, the video for "I Will Always Love You" reached at least one billion views on YouTube, making it the first music video of the 20th century by a solo artist to reach the milestone.
Live performances
Houston would first perform the song on English comedian Des O'Connor's ITV variety show, Des O'Connor Tonight in late 1992. Houston would perform the song for all of the remainder of her concert tours starting with the Bodyguard World Tour (1993–1994) and ending with her final concert tour, the Nothing but Love World Tour (2009–2010). During the song's key chord change in shows throughout The Bodyguard World Tour, as Houston belted the chorus, pyrotechnics from the back of the stage would shoot up behind her and her band. The song was also performed live on her second HBO concert special, Whitney: The Concert for a New South Africa at Johannesburg's Ellis Park Stadium on November 12, 1994. Houston made history by becoming the first international artist to headline at South Africa following the end of the country's apartheid rule and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela. In the performance, the pyrotechnics shot from up in the sky. During a long pause in the performance where audiences cheered the singer on, Houston told the audience, "my heart belongs to you, South Africa", before finishing the song. The landmark performance would later be dramatized for the Houston biopic, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022).
Houston also gave a memorable performance of the song at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards in March 1994, which opened the show. The performance has since been hailed as one of the greatest Grammy performances of the award ceremony's history. The performance re-aired during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards on February 12, 2012, following Houston's death and, again, in November of that year, for the Grammy special, We Will Always Love You: A Grammy Salute to Whitney Houston. Later in 1994, Houston performed the song at the World Music Awards and at the 1994 FIFA World Cup at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California in front of 92,000 fans at the stadium and with over a billion people watching on television. In August 1996, Houston performed the song at the Jerudong Park Amphitheater at Jerudong Park, Bandar Seri Bagawan, Brunei, for the Whitney: Brunei The Royal Wedding Celebration. Houston opened her third HBO concert special, Classic Whitney: Live from Washington, D.C. (1997) by performing the song, receiving a standing ovation. During the promotion of the album, My Love Is Your Love, in April 1999, Houston performed the song during Divas Live '99, receiving a standing ovation after hitting the high note after the famous delayed drum beat. A year later, she performed the song again on the Arista Records silver anniversary special, 25 Years of #1 Hits - Arista Records 25th Anniversary Celebration (2000); that same year she walked onstage singing the song's chorus a cappella at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards after an introduction by Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, walking out to cheers and a standing ovation. Houston performed the song, alongside "I Have Nothing" at the first annual BET Awards where she became the first recipient of the BET Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Three years later, on September 15, 2004, Houston performed the song again, alongside her 1996 hit ballad, "I Believe in You and Me", at the World Music Awards at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas in what was held as a comeback performance for the artist in her first televised performance since 2003.
Legacy and cultural impact
Impact on music and popular culture
Houston's vocal performance on "I Will Always Love You" has been hailed as one of the most influential moments in pop music and culture. According to Nick Levine of the BBC, the song "wasn't just a hit, but an unstoppable cultural phenomenon." Along with Mariah Carey's "Hero" and Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", the song "set a template – and a very high bar – for many female singers who sought to break through on the popular TV talent shows of the early 2000s," Levine continues. In the same article, vocal coaches Carrie and David Grant, who worked with contestants on the British talent shows Pop Idol and Fame Academy, said that the song, among some of the singer's other landmark recordings such as "Greatest Love of All" and "I Have Nothing", became a gold standard that was rarely attainable.
Said Carrie Grant, "Just about every singer we taught or auditioned for about five years wanted to master I Will Always Love You or The Greatest Love of All or I Have Nothing... Most of [them] should have tried something a little easier – many a singer has been wiped out in an attempt to do Whitney!"
Korean pop singer Dami Im, one of the singers heavily influenced by Houston, told the BBC, "Whitney knew how to use the full range in her voice to fully connect emotionally with the song and create such drama." Im went on to say in regard to Houston that she "raised the bar for all female vocalists with her use of range and dynamics."
The song's impact was also felt in countries as far as Russia and China. In the latter country, Houston was praised posthumously by Chinese musicians and producers as being an "inspirational figure who opened the door to Western pop music" in the country, following the success of the ballad. Houston's success with "I Will Always Love You" in China came at a time when "the only way for many people to hear about Western pop acts was through limited edition tapes and music magazines," according to China Daily. Taiwanese singer Lin Yu-chun went viral after his cover of the song was posted on YouTube and attracted over ten million views. Lin, who was influenced by Houston, dreamed of performing a duet with the singer, which ended with Houston's untimely death, with Lin saying, "My dream can never be fulfilled now. My heart is broken."
In his February 13, 2012 article on the song following Houston's death, Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times claimed the singer's tone in the song as "pure and game-changing".
Covers, samples and tributes
Houston's rendition of the song has been covered over the years with 191 renditions. Among the most notable covers of Houston's rendition of the song include Zapp & Roger and Shirley Murdock, LeAnn Rimes, Keke Wyatt, Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé, who sang it live during her Revel Presents: Beyoncé Live residency tour at the Revel resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey during May 2012, in tribute to Houston, who died that February, often covering it before segueing into her hit, "Halo", to which was also dedicated to Houston during the residency.
Just days after Houston's death in February 2012, Glee actress and singer Amber Riley gave what critics called a "powerful performance" of "I Will Always Love You" on the Glee episode, "Heart". At the end of the episode, the screen faded to black and then showcased the words "Whitney Houston, 1963-2012, We Will Always Love You."
In 2012, YouTuber JonTron did his short version on his Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts review.
Later, in 2013, during her The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, Beyoncé also sang the opening lines of "I Will Always Love You" prior to the performance of "Halo" as the final song of the tour. That year, on the Family Guy episode, "Boopa-dee Bappa-dee", Chris Griffin sang it in his version as part of the national anthem. In The Amazing World of Gumball episode, The Ex, a parodied version of the song ("Love Me Forever") plays briefly after Gumball gets Rob to hate him again.
Hudson sang the song for Houston when she received the BET Honors Entertainers Award in January 2010 and, again, on February 12, 2012, as a tribute to Houston, who died the night before. Parton complimented Hudson on her performance, saying,I was brought to tears again last night, as I'm sure many were, when Jennifer Hudson sang "I Will Always Love You" on the Grammys in memory of Whitney. Like everybody else, I am still in shock. But I know that Whitney will live forever in all the great music that she left behind. I will always have a very special piece of her in the song we shared together and had the good fortune to share with the world. Rest in peace, Whitney. Again, we will always love you.
Twelve years later, in a tribute to Houston at the 50th anniversary special for the American Music Awards, Hudson covered the song again, while also adding in the song "I Loves You, Porgy", to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Houston's legendary 1994 American Music Awards performance where she also covered "I Loves You, Porgy" along with the Dreamgirls ballad, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going".
Reaction from Dolly Parton
After Houston's recording became a hit in 1992, the tabloid press began reporting on a supposed "feud" between Houston and Dolly Parton, stemming from Parton allegedly reneging on an agreement that she would not perform the song for a number of months while Houston's version was on the charts, so as not to compete with Houston's recording.
However, both Parton and Houston dismissed any rumors, speaking glowingly of one another in interviews.
Houston praised Parton for writing a beautiful song. In return, Parton thanked Houston for bringing her song to a wider audience and increasing the amount of royalties in the process. Parton also gave a live interview, confirming this. Parton also publicly stated she liked Houston's version of the song better than her own.
Parton recalled that when she first heard the song while driving in Nashville the week of its release that she "just heard this voice come on the radio. It kind of rang a bell, but it didn't hit because she was kind of talking it. Then, all of a sudden, it went into the 'I Will Always Love You' part and I just about wrecked. I had to pull off the side of the road, seriously, to listen to it."
Parton stated that she was “overwhelmed” and that Houston "made it so much more than it ever would have been." In an interview with Howard Stern, Parton added "I couldn't believe my little country sad song could even be done like that. That was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had in my entire life."
Parton further added: "When Whitney did 'I Will Always Love You,' I mean look what a grand song she made out of that simple, heartfelt, you know, song ... it was just amazing. Whitney is the one who took it worldwide and really made it a household word – or song, I should say – so I'll always be thankful to her for that."
She further added that the song helped people put her "in the forefront as a writer". She stated, "I was just a girl with the big hair and big tits and a big personality, but I think that one kind of pointed a finger at me as a serious songwriter and the fact that it did so well and I was so touched by it and so honored by it. That one will stand out in my mind forever."
The Whitney Houston TikTok challenge
In 2025, a series of videos on the video platform TikTok called "The Whitney Houston Challenge" began circulating. The challenge consists of a person or a group of people standing in front of a drum set, hoping to match the delayed famous "tom" drum beat that hits right before the final chorus.
It has since been attempted by famous celebrities and musicians such as Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Paula Abdul, Calum Scott, Simple Plan and the crew of Good Morning America as well as a Slipknot cover band.
