I know talking about country music on the org is like illegal. But I recently started lis Enjoy Loren tonkenny rogers and the dude really had some great songs. For one he sang a song about a wounded Korean War vet who’s girlfriend is the town slut and he begs her now to cheat? That’s pretty dark for a late 60s country-pop song. Also the entire gambler album is pretty classy I liked a good majority of the tracks. He even did a soulful rendition of lady by Lionel Richie.

Any other others listened to Kenny’s stuff? I’m
Wondering if I should go deeper into his discography. Or if the gambler album and a greatest hits is enough.

As a Bee Gees fan, the only Kenny Rogers album I have is this one from 1983. I think it's pretty good

Also his duet with Sheena Easton is a classic. I have it as a bonus track on Sheena's album

written by Joey Coco, who would have thought?

PANDURITO said:

written by Joey Coco, who would have thought?

It's one of my favorite Prince-penned songs for someone else. I had that record way back when.

To the OP, I good smattering of his hits can be found on his Greatest Hits from 1980 (it was called Lady in the UK). Such great songs packed on there. I never heard much of The First Edition's stuff, but once he was solo I was old enough to pay attention to him.

"She Believes In Me", "You Decorated My Life", "Lady" (written by/with Lionel Richie, and previously unreleased), "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer" (duet with Kim Carnes) ...ahh, such great songcraft. "Long Arm" and "Love The World Away" were also new tracks. A couple of the tracks were new songs on a previous Gold album that became hits and showed up on this greatest hits, too. He had a great career up through the 80s.

His TV specials and duets with Dolly Parton was just amazing. They had such a great working relationship.

Another Rogers and Parton hit was also written by the BeeGees...

I like this song Kenny Rogers - The Gambler (1978)

And I like this song Coward Of the County (1980)

purplethunder3121 said:

Another Rogers and Parton hit was also written by the BeeGees...

That is on the Eyes That See In The Dark album from above. For me, it was the only good song on it. It was a lackluster album to me back then. Maybe I should listen again 30 years later.

It's interesting to see what R&B type artists he's worked with over the years. Kenny has a funny story about working with Lionel Richie. This video sorta tells the story about "Lady", but the part missing is that Lionel kept saying, "I don't have time to come over". He was busy w/ a tour or something. Then Kenny said, "We're probably going to sell 5 or 6 million records." Then Lionel said, "I'll be right over". He sorta glazes over that in the story, but the bathroom part is also something Lionel confirmed.

By the way, regarding the Joey Coco song, El DeBarge sings backing vocals on it.

Finally the classic Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer with Kim Carnes (1980)

Just one more .....the Lionel Ritchie classic, Lady (1980)

[Edited 2/6/18 21:25pm]

Goddess4Real said:

Ahh of course always loved this song!!! Kim got her start as a background singer in Lenny’s first band. She wrote this song too and is underrated for her 80s albums. But yeah love this duet they sound so good together.

TrivialPursuit said:

Yes! I have that one and the gambler album. I feel around late 80s is where he started to get kind of meh. I always thought he was so corny but dude was a good songwriter.

PANDURITO said:

While it’s not exactly u got the look or arms of Orion it will do

Gunsnhalen said:

Yes! I have that one and the gambler album. I feel around late 80s is where he started to get kind of meh. I always thought he was so corny but dude was a good songwriter.

I never saw him as corny. He was a good crooner in his day. He had a great talent for singing (and sometimes songwriting). He's a good photographer too. My roommate has a photography book of his, which includes a mid-late 80s Control-era pic of Janet.

I'd agree that by the mid-80s country music changed, and a lot of those classic singers got phased out in lieu of people like Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw who both debuted at the end of the decade or in the early 90s with the new class of country artists. But yet Reba McIntire kinda crept in during the late 70s and found more success in the 80s and straight into the 90s. When it came to output, she was as prolific as Prince in putting out an album every year for almost two decades straight. The bitch worked for her dinner!

Classic singers like Merle Haggard, Charlie Daniels Band, Mickey Gilley, Johnny Lee, Waylon Jennings, Glen Campbell, Willie Nelson and the like probably felt like hair bands when Nirvana & Pearl Jam showed up. The smart ones found new career avenues.

Back to Kenny, in the video I posted he mentions how Ray Charles sang country songs over an R&B arrangement. So he figured why not sing R&B songs over a country arrangement. It's not something many were doing in those days. "Lady" is a great example of that. When Richie re-recorded some of his songs w/ country artists on Tuskegee, Kenny sang on a new version of "Lady" with him. Lionel also produced the Share Your Love album, if memory serves, and that was a great record.

I'll tell ya the one spot he got kitschy was the incredible success of "The Gambler". It was his own "When Doves Cry" or "Billie Jean". It was everywhere. They made a couple of made-for-TV movies based on the storyline. I couldn't watch them even back then.

I remember watching them as a kid...especially The Gambler: The Adventures Continues (1983) with Linda Evans from Dynasty.

PANDURITO said:

written by Joey Coco, who would have thought?

.

Yes......I never knew this until Prince passed. Very cool story of how it came about.