NEW YORK--Whitney Houston's recording of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which enjoyed a record 14 straight weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart, has been named the most-performed BMI-cleared song of the year.

In two other key awards presented May 26 at BMI's 43rd annual pop awards dinner here, Miguel A. Morejon, co-writer of five most-performed songs, emerged as the songwriter of the year, and Warner Music Group, with 17 top songs, ranked first among publishers. Its sister company, ASCAP-cleared Warner/Chappell, earlier had earned this year's top ASCAP honors with 10 awards (Billboard, May 21).

BMI's Citations of Achievement were presented to the writers and publishers of the 73 most-performed songs on U.S. radio and TV from Oct. 1, 1992, to Sept. 30, 1993.

The award for "I Will Always Love You," sung by Houston on her huge soundtrack success, "The Bodyguard," was the first pop honor for the song. Recorded in 1973 by Parton, it was a No. 1 country single for her in both 1974 and 1982 (in different versions). It won BMI Country Awards in 1975 and 1983, and has racked up 3 million performances.

Morejon won top writer honors in collaborative efforts with Gloria Estefan and Jon Secada, who are ASCAP writers. Their "Just Another Day" (Otro Dia Mas Sin Verte), recorded by Secada, was named BMI's first Latin song of the year at a Miami awards ceremony in March.

Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Antonio "L.A." Reid, and Daryl Simmons also were big winners, with four awards each for their songwriting.

BMI-associated firms from EMI Music Publishing and Sony Music tied for second place with 10 awards each, with EMI Music also receiving special recognition for the college song of the year, the Spin Doctors' "Two Princes."

Other multiple award winners among publishers are Foreign Imported Prod. and Publishing, with six citations; Music Corp. of America, with five; and ECAF Music, Kear Music, and Stone Agate Music, with four each.

Richard Addrisi, co-writer with his late brother Donald Addrisi of "Never My Love," was presented with a special trophy by BMI president/CEO Frances W. Preston in recognition of the song's 6 million performances; it was only the second song to be so honored by BMI.

Also, 10 songs were honored for 1 million performances during the eligibility period: Morejon's "Do You Believe In Us"; "End Of The...