Islands in the Stream (song)
"Islands in the Stream" is a song written by the Bee Gees and recorded by American country music artists Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. It was released in August 1983 as the first single from Rogers's fifteenth studio album Eyes That See in the Dark. The Bee Gees released a live version in 1998 and a studio version in 2001.
This article is about the song. For other uses, see Islands in the Stream."Islands in the Stream"
- "I Will Always Love You" (US)
- "Midsummer Nights" (UK)
August 15, 1983
May 1983
- Middle Ear, Miami
- Lion Share, Los Angeles
- Ocean Way, Hollywood
4:08
The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, giving both Rogers and Parton their second pop number-one hit (after Rogers's "Lady" in 1980 and Parton's "9 to 5" in 1981). It also topped the Country and Adult Contemporary charts. In 2005 the song topped Country Music Television's poll of the best country duets of all time; Parton and Rogers reunited to perform the song on a CMT special. As of May 2023, it has been triple certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for three million certified units.[2]
Rogers and Parton went on to record a Christmas album together and had an additional hit with their 1985 duet "Real Love".
Background[edit]
Named after an Ernest Hemingway novel, the song was originally written for Diana Ross in an R&B style but later reworked for the duet by Rogers and Parton.[3][4]
It has been claimed that the song was also intended for Marvin Gaye. This is attributed to a 2001 Good Morning America interview with the Bee Gees. When Barry Gibb said the song was written for Ross, Robin Gibb interrupted and said, "No, we wrote it for Marvin Gaye ... We sent it to him but he was dead so it was a bit difficult for him to sing it."[5][6] Gaye actually died in 1984, a year after the recording.[7] Separately, Robin Gibb has said the song was stylistically written "... as a Tamla kind of soul song in a Marvin Gaye type feel", though not asserting it was for Gaye.[8] In other interviews, Barry Gibb has always maintained that Ross was the original artist for the song with no mention of Gaye.[4][9]
For licensing reasons, the song was not included on the digital release of Eyes That See in the Dark from Capitol Records Nashville. Sony Music, the current owner of RCA Records, protected copyrights in the recording, which is digitally available only in various compilations from Sony Music, especially those of Dolly Parton.
Commercial performance[edit]
The song knocked Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" out of No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, also topping the Country and Adult Contemporary listings. In December of that year, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over two million physical copies in the US.[2] After becoming available for digital download, it had sold a further 834,000 digital copies in the US, as of January 2019.[12]
In Australia, the song was number one for one week in December 1983 and became one of the highest selling singles of 1984.
The song reached a peak of No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart in 1983. As of July 2014, it had also sold 245,577 digital copies in the UK.[13] As of 2017, it had racked up 287,200 downloads and 4.83 million streams in the UK.[14]
In popular media[edit]
In April 2008, South Bend, Indiana, radio station WZOW played the song continuously for several days on end,[15] a stunt drawing attention to the station's format change from alternative rock to adult contemporary.
The song was also used as a karaoke song in two episodes of the second season of ABC's The Good Doctor, "Islands Part One" and "Tough Titmouse".[16]
The song was also used as a karaoke number in the first episode of American Horror Story: Double Feature, "Cape Fear", where it was sung by Evan Peters and Frances Conroy. It also appeared in the 2023 Netflix documentary miniseries Beckham, showing David Beckham and his wife Victoria Beckham dancing to it.
"Islands in the Stream"
20 November 2001
2001
4:23
- Barry Gibb
- Robin Gibb
- Maurice Gibb
The Bee Gees performed their version live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on 14 November 1997, which was released a year later on One Night Only, with solo vocal by Barry Gibb. A studio version was recorded for their 2001 retrospective Their Greatest Hits: The Record, which has since featured on the 2004 Number Ones and on the 2010 Mythology box set.[47] The chorus of Pras's 1998 hit "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)", which in turn is a reworking of the original Rogers and Parton release, replaces the final chorus in the studio recording. The live version of the song appears on their Love Songs compilation.
with