Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.[1] Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted more than 120 hit singles across various genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.[2] His fame and career spanned multiple genres: jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country. He remade his career and was one of the most successful cross-over artists of all time.[3]
This article is about the country singer. For the baseball pitcher, see Kenny Rogers (baseball).
Kenny Rogers
August 21, 1938
Houston, Texas, U.S.
March 20, 2020 (aged 81)
Sandy Springs, Georgia, U.S.
- Singer
- songwriter
- record producer
- actor
- entrepreneur
1956–2017
In the late 1950s, Rogers began his recording career with the Houston-based group the Scholars, who first released "The Poor Little Doggie". After some solo releases, including 1958's "That Crazy Feeling", Rogers then joined a group with the jazz singer Bobby Doyle. In 1966, he became a member of the folk ensemble the New Christy Minstrels, playing double bass and bass guitar as well as singing.[3] In 1967, he and several members of the New Christy Minstrels left to found the group the First Edition, with whom he scored his first major hit, "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", a psychedelic rock song which peaked at number five on the Billboard charts. As Rogers took an increased leadership role in the First Edition following the success of 1969's "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town", the band gradually changed styles to a more country feel. The band broke up in 1975–76, and Rogers embarked on a long and successful solo career, which included several successful collaborations, including duets with singers Dottie West, Dolly Parton, and Sheena Easton, and a songwriting partnership with Lionel Richie. His signature song, 1978's "The Gambler", was a crossover hit that won him a Grammy Award in 1980 and was selected in 2018 for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. He developed the Gambler persona into a character for a successful series of television films starting with 1980's Emmy-nominated Kenny Rogers as The Gambler.[3]
Rogers's albums The Gambler and Kenny were featured in the About.com poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever".[4] He was voted the "Favorite Singer of All Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.[5] He received numerous awards, such as the AMAs, Grammys, ACMs, and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003.[6] Later success included the 2006 album release Water & Bridges, an across-the-board hit that entered the top 5 in the Billboard Country Albums sales charts, also charting in the top 15 of the Billboard 200. The first single from the album, "I Can't Unlove You", was also a sizable chart hit. Remaining a popular entertainer around the world, he continued to tour regularly until his retirement in 2017.[3]
Rogers had acting roles in movies and television shows, including the title roles in Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, the MacShayne series for The NBC Mystery Movie, and the 1982 feature film Six Pack. He was a co-founder of the restaurant chain Kenny Rogers Roasters in collaboration with former KFC CEO John Y. Brown Jr. Although the stores closed in the United States, they are still a fixture in Asia.
Early life[edit]
Rogers was born the fourth of eight children on August 21, 1938, at St Joseph's Infirmary in Houston, Texas.[7] His parents were Lucille Lois Rogers, a nurse's assistant, and Edward Floyd Rogers (1904–1975), a carpenter. Rogers was said to be of Irish and Native American ancestry.[8] Rogers attended Wharton Elementary School,[9] George Washington Junior High School, and graduated from Jefferson Davis High School (now Northside High School) in 1956.
In 1949, Rogers won a talent show at the Texan Theatre. He served as a busboy at the Rice Hotel and swept floors at a hat store for $9 a week. He later attended the University of Houston.[10]
In 1986, on The Phil Donahue Show, Rogers told the audience that he was the first person in his family "as far back as we know" to graduate from high school. "We were broke. We lived in a federal housing project. I think the most money my father ever made was $75 a week. There were times as a child that, I don't think I was ever really hungry – I always had food to eat – but there's no question that our family were nutritionally-deprived at times. We'd eat peanut butter sandwiches, cause that's all there was. Quite honestly, when you're a kid, you don't know any better, you think that's how everyone eats."[11]
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
In a recording career dating back to the 1950s, Rogers moved from teenage rock and roll through psychedelic rock to become a country-pop crossover artist of the 1970s and 1980s. He had a minor solo hit in 1957 called "That Crazy Feeling".[3][12][13] After sales slowed down, Rogers joined a jazz group called the Bobby Doyle Three, who were frequently hired by clubs due to their fan following. The group recorded for Columbia Records. They disbanded in 1965, and a 1966 jazzy rock single Rogers recorded for Mercury Records, called "Here's That Rainy Day", failed. Rogers also worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers, including country artists Mickey Gilley and Eddy Arnold. In 1966, he joined the New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player.[3]
Feeling that the Minstrels were not offering the success they wanted, Rogers and fellow members Mike Settle, Terry Williams, and Thelma Camacho left the group.[3] They formed the First Edition in 1967 (later renamed "Kenny Rogers and the First Edition"). They were later joined by Kin Vassy. They chalked up a string of hits on both the pop and country charts, including "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" (Rogers doing lead vocals and bass—and famously used in the dream sequence of the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski),[3] "But You Know I Love You", "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town", "Tell It All, Brother", "Reuben James", and "Something's Burning".[3][12]
When the First Edition disbanded in 1976, Rogers launched his solo career.[3][14] He soon developed a more middle-of-the-road sound that sold to both pop and country audiences. He charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles (including two number ones—"Lady" and "Islands in the Stream"). His music has been featured in top-selling movie soundtracks, such as Convoy, Urban Cowboy, and The Big Lebowski.[15][16]
Solo career and duets with other artists[edit]
The First Edition broke up in 1975, which was a rough time for the recently divorced Rogers. That year, he was the face of a national commercial advertising the "Quick Pickin' Fun Strummin' Home Guitar Course."[17] But in 1976, Rogers signed a solo deal with United Artists.[3] Producer Larry Butler and Rogers began a partnership that would last four years.[18]
Rogers's first outing for his new label was Love Lifted Me. The album charted and two singles, "Love Lifted Me" and "While the Feeling's Good", were minor hits.[3] The song "Runaway Girl" was featured in the film Trackdown (1976).[19] Later in 1976, Rogers issued his second album, the self-titled Kenny Rogers, whose first single, "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)", was another solo hit.[20]
The single "Lucille" (1977) was a major hit, reaching number one on the pop charts in 12 countries, selling over five million copies, and firmly establishing Rogers's post-First Edition career.[21] On the strength of "Lucille", the album Kenny Rogers reached No. 1 on the Billboard Country Album Chart.[22] More success was to follow, including the multi-platinum selling album The Gambler and another international Number 1 single, "Coward of the County", taken from the equally successful album, Kenny.[21] In 1980, the Rogers/Butler partnership came to an end, though they would occasionally reunite: in 1987 on the album I Prefer the Moonlight and again in 1993 on the album If Only My Heart Had a Voice.[3]
In the late 1970s, Rogers teamed up with close friend and Country Music legend Dottie West for a series of albums and duets. Together the duo won two gold records (one of which later went platinum), two CMA Awards, an ACM nomination, two Grammy nominations and 1 Music City News Award for their two hit albums Every Time Two Fools Collide (No. 1) and Classics (No. 3), selling out stadiums and arenas while on tour for several years, as well as appearing on several network television specials which showcased them. Their hits together "Every Time Two Fools Collide" (No. 1), "Anyone Who Isn't Me Tonight" (No. 2), "What Are We Doin' in Love" (No. 1), "All I Ever Need Is You" (No. 1) and "Till I Can Make It On My Own" (No. 3) all became Country standards. Of West, Rogers stated in a 1995 TNN interview: "She, more than anybody else I ever worked with, sang with such emotion that you actually believed what she sang. A lot of people sing words, Dottie West sang emotions." In a 1978 press release for their album "Every Time Two Fools Collide", Rogers credited West with further establishing and cementing his career with Country Music audiences. In the same release, West credited him with taking her career to new audiences. Rogers was with West only hours before she died at age 58 after sustaining injuries in a 1991 car accident, as discussed in his 2012 biography "Luck Or Something Like It". In 1995 he starred as himself, alongside Michele Lee as West, in the CBS biographical film Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story.
In 1980, a selection he recorded as a duet with Kim Carnes, "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer", became a hit.[23] Earlier that year, he sang a duet of "You and Me" with Lynda Carter in her television music special Lynda Carter Special (Rogers originally recorded this with Dottie West for the Every Time Two Fools Collide album). Later in 1980 came his partnership with Lionel Richie, who wrote and produced Rogers's No. 1 hit "Lady".[1] Richie went on to produce Rogers's 1981 album Share Your Love, a chart topper and commercial favorite featuring hits such as "I Don't Need You" (Pop No. 3), "Through the Years" (Pop No. 13), and "Share Your Love with Me" (Pop No. 14). His first Christmas album was also released that same year. Rogers would return the favor by singing backing vocals on Richie's top 5 hit "My Love". In 1982, Rogers released the album Love Will Turn You Around. The album's the title track reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the country and AC charts. It was the theme song of Rogers's 1982 film Six Pack. Shortly afterwards, he started working with producer David Foster in 1983, recording the smash Top 10 hit Bob Seger cover "We've Got Tonight", a duet with Sheena Easton. Also a number 1 single on the Country charts in the United States, it reached the Top 30 on the British charts.[3]
In 1981, Rogers bought the old ABC Dunhill building and built one of the most popular and state-of-the-art recording studios in Los Angeles, which he named Lion Share Studios. The song "We Are the World" was recorded there and at A&M Studios.[24]
Rogers went on to work with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees who produced his 1983 hit album Eyes That See in the Dark, featuring the title track and yet another No. 1 hit "Islands in the Stream", a duet with Dolly Parton. Gibb, along with his brothers, Robin and Maurice, originally wrote the song for Diana Ross in an R&B style, only later to change it for Rogers's album.[25]
"Islands in the Stream", Rogers's duet with Dolly Parton, was the first single to be released from Eyes That See in the Dark in the United States, and it quickly went to No. 1 in the Billboard Hot 100 (it would prove to be the last country single to reach No. 1 on that chart until "Amazed" by Lonestar did so in 2000), as well as topping Billboard's country and adult contemporary singles charts; it was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping two million copies in the United States. Rogers would reunite with Parton in 1984 for a holiday album, Once Upon a Christmas, and the TV special Kenny & Dolly: A Christmas to Remember (which resulted in a popular video of "Christmas Without You"), as well as a 1985 duet "Real Love", which also topped the U.S. country singles chart. The two would continue to collaborate on occasional projects through subsequent years, including a 2013 duet single "You Can't Make Old Friends".[3]
Despite the success of "Islands in the Stream", however, RCA Records insisted on releasing Eyes' title track as the first UK single, and the song stalled at a disappointing No. 61 there, although it did stay in the top 100 for several weeks. (When it was eventually released in the United States, it was more successful, charting high on the Adult Contemporary chart and making the country top 30.) "Islands in the Stream" was issued as a follow-up single in Britain and sold well, making No. 7. The album itself reached No. 1 on the country charts on both sides of the Atlantic and enjoyed multi-million sales. "Buried Treasure", "This Woman" and "Evening Star"/"Midsummer Nights" were also all successful singles from the album.
Shortly after came the album What About Me?, a hit whose title track—a trio performance with James Ingram and Kim Carnes—was nominated for a Grammy Award; the single "Crazy" (not to be confused with the Willie Nelson-penned Patsy Cline hit), co-written with Richard Marx, topped the country charts. David Foster was to work again with Rogers in his 1985 album The Heart of the Matter, although this time Foster was playing backing music rather than producing, a role given to George Martin. This album was another success, going to No. 1, with the title track making to the top ten category in the singles charts.
The next few years saw Rogers scoring several top country hits on a regular basis, including "Twenty Years Ago", "Morning Desire", "Tomb of the Unknown Love", among others. On January 28, 1985, Rogers was one of the 45 artists who recorded the worldwide charity song "We Are the World" to support hunger victims in Africa. The following year he played at Giants Stadium.[26]
In 1988, Rogers won a Grammy Award for "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals" with Ronnie Milsap—"Make No Mistake, She's Mine". In the 1990s, Rogers continued to chart with singles such as "The Factory" and "Crazy In Love", another selection that Kim Carnes provided him with, "If You Want To Find Love", and "The Greatest". His second Christmas album, titled Christmas in America, was released in 1989 for Reprise Records. From 1991 to 1994, Rogers hosted The Real West on A&E, and on The History Channel since 1995 (Reruns only on The History Channel). He visited Miller's during this time period. From 1992 to 1995, Rogers co-owned and headlined Branson, Missouri's 4,000 seat Grand Palace Theatre. In 1994, Rogers released his "dream" album titled Timepiece on Atlantic Records. It consisted of 1930s/1940s jazz standards, the type of music he had performed in his early days with the Bobby Doyle Three in Houston.[27]
In 1996, Rogers released an album Vote For Love where the public requested their favorite love songs and Rogers performed the songs. (Several of his own hits were in the final version.) The album was the first for the TV shopping channel QVC's record label, onQ Music. The album, sold exclusively by QVC, was a huge success and was later issued in stores under a variety of different titles. It reached No. 1 in the UK country charts under the title Love Songs (a title also used for various compilations) and also crossed over into the mainstream charts.
In 1999, Rogers scored with the single "The Greatest", a song about life from a child's point of view (looked at through a baseball game)[21] The song reached the top 40 of Billboard's Country singles chart and was a Country Music Television Number One video. It was on Rogers's album She Rides Wild Horses the following year (itself a top 10 success).[3] Also in 1999, Rogers produced a song, "We've Got It All", specifically for the series finale of the ABC show Home Improvement.
The following is a list of record labels to which Rogers signed: