Always Wanting You  "Always Wanting You" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in February 1975 as the second single from the album "Keep Movin' On". The song was Haggard and The Strangers twentieth number-one single on the U.S. country chart. It stayed at number one for two weeks and spent a total of ten weeks on the chart. In 2004, "Always Wanting You" was featured on the radio station in the video game "". According to interviews, it was written for Dolly Parton, because Haggard fell in love with her while recording her song "Kentucky Gambler", but knew he could never have her, as both he and Parton were married to others. This is the story of a song in which the performer expresses love for another person in the storyline. In country music, that is pretty ordinary. The big difference here is that Haggard was professing his real-life love for an artist that he had become infatuated with while on tour with her: Dolly Parton. He did not mention Parton by name in the song, of course, but it became common knowledge that is who he was singing about, and he had no problem talking publicly about his feelings regarding Dolly. She and Merle had toured a lot together during 1974–75, and during that time they spent large blocks of time with each other. Traveling from show to show, she would ride on his bus or he would ride on hers, and they talked a great deal about music and their personal goals. Not only that, Haggard expressed his desires for a more intimate relationship on several occasions, but Dolly insisted throughout that it could never work (she was married, but he was between wives at the time). Although her husband Carl Dean never went on tour with her, she insisted that she loved only him, and would never cheat on him. Nonetheless, Haggard's desires persisted. The situation got to the point that Haggard literally could not get Parton off his mind. He would envision her when he walked out on stage to do a show, when he went to sleep at night and when he woke up in the morning. He tried everything to put her out of his mind, but nothing worked. Haggard was the type of songwriter who could be inspired by the least little thing which might trigger an idea for a song. But this infatuation with Parton was big and it completely overwhelmed him.