"I Don't Need You" | ||||
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Single by Kenny Rogers | ||||
from the album Share Your Love | ||||
B-side | "Without You in My Life" | |||
Released | June 15, 1981 | |||
Genre | Country pop [1] | |||
Length | 3:27 | |||
Label | Liberty | |||
Songwriter(s) | Rick Christian [2] | |||
Producer(s) | Lionel Richie | |||
Kenny Rogers singles chronology | ||||
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"I Don't Need You" is a song written by Rick Christian, and was first recorded and released as a single in 1978 on Mercury Records, by Rick Christian himself at Shoe Productions, a recording studio/production company in Memphis, Tennessee, but it failed to chart.
It was released in June 1981 as the lead single from Rogers album Share Your Love . American country music artist Kenny Rogers had collaborated with R&B/pop singer-songwriter Lionel Richie in 1980 with the song "Lady". After the success of that record, Rogers asked Richie to produce his next album, Share Your Love. Although the original plan was for Richie to write all the songs for Rogers' forthcoming album, the two men agreed to accept songs they both liked for the project which had been written by others. "I Don't Need You", written by Rick Christian, was one of those songs. [3] Rogers has been quoted describing "I Don't Need You" as "...still to this day one of my favorite songs", although he admitted that "I don't think I ever met Rick Christian, the guy who wrote it." [3]
Selected as the lead single, "I Don't Need You" spent two weeks at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1981. [4] The song also rose to number 1 on two other Billboard music charts, the country chart as well as the adult contemporary chart. [3] It remained atop the latter chart for six weeks in July and August of that year.
Chart (1981) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report) [5] | 64 |
US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [6] | 1 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [7] | 3 |
US Adult Contemporary ( Billboard ) [8] | 1 |
Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1 |
Canadian RPM Top Singles | 2 |
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks | 2 |
Year-end chart (1981) | Rank |
---|---|
US Top Pop Singles (Billboard) [9] | 44 |
Kenneth Donald Rogers was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. 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. 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.
"But You Know I Love You" is a song written by Mike Settle, which was a 1969 pop hit for Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, a group that included Settle and Kenny Rogers. The song also became a major country hit by Bill Anderson in 1969. In 1981, a cover version of "But You Know I Love You" by singer Dolly Parton topped the country singles charts.
"You Don't Know Me" is a song written by Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker in 1955. "You Don't Know Me" was first recorded by Arnold that year and released as a single on April 21, 1956, on RCA Victor. The best-selling version of the song is by Ray Charles, who took it to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1962, after releasing the song on his number 1 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. The first version of the song to make the Billboard charts was by Jerry Vale in 1956, peaking at number 14 on the pop chart. Arnold's version charted two months later, released as an RCA Victor single, 47–6502, backed with "The Rockin' Mockin' Bird", which reached number 10 on the Billboard country chart. Cash Box magazine, which combined all best-selling versions at one position, included a version by Carmen McRae that never appeared in the Billboard Top 100 Sides listing.
"Coward of the County" is a song written by Roger Bowling and Billy Edd Wheeler and recorded by American country music singer Kenny Rogers. The song was released in November 1979 as the second single from Rogers' multi-platinum album Kenny. It became a major crossover hit, topping the Billboard Country chart and reaching number three on the Hot 100 chart; it also topped the Cash Box singles chart and was a Top 10 hit in numerous other countries worldwide, topping the chart in Canada, the UK and Ireland, where it remained at number one for six consecutive weeks.
"The Gambler" is a song written by Don Schlitz and recorded by several artists, most famously by American country singer Kenny Rogers.
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"Real Love" is a song written by David Malloy, Richard "Spady" Brannon and Randy McCormick, and recorded as a duet by American entertainers Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers that topped the U.S. country singles charts in August 1985. It was released in April 1985 the second single and title track from Parton's Real Love album. Released after the top-ten success of "Don't Call It Love", the song became Parton and Rogers' second country chart-topper as a duet act. However, "Real Love" did not fare as well on the pop singles charts as 1983's "Islands in the Stream" had done, stalling at number 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
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"Lady" is a song written by Lionel Richie and first recorded by American country music artist Kenny Rogers. It was released in September 1980 on the album Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits.
The discography of American singer Kenny Rogers (1938–2020), consists of 39 studio albums and 80 singles, 24 of which have reached Number One on the country chart. His longest-lasting Number Ones on that chart are "The Gambler" and "Coward of the County", at three weeks each. Two of his Number One country hits, "Lady" and "Islands in the Stream", a duet with Dolly Parton, also reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100; "Lady" spent six weeks at the top, making it his longest running Number One single on any Billboard chart. More than just a US phenomenon, he found an audience around the world with two of his biggest songs, "Lucille" and "Coward of the County", both reaching Number One on the general sales chart in the UK. His albums The Gambler and Kenny each topped the country chart for at least 20 weeks, while his Greatest Hits was the only album by a solo country performer to top the Billboard 200 during the 1980s, reaching the summit in late 1980.
"The One That You Love" is a song by British-Australian soft rock duo Air Supply, released as a single from their sixth studio album of the same name. It was written by member Graham Russell. The song reached No. 1 in the United States, topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 25 July 1981 and remaining there for one week; it is the duo's only No. 1 hit. The song's lead vocals are sung by Russell Hitchcock.
"What About Me?" is a 1984 song written by Kenny Rogers, producer David Foster, and singer-songwriter Richard Marx, and recorded by Rogers, Kim Carnes, and James Ingram as a trio song from Rogers' 1984 album of the same name. It was the lead single from the album and reached at number 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and at number one on the US Adult Contemporary chart, Marx's first number one hit as a songwriter.
"Love Will Turn You Around" is a song by American country music singer Kenny Rogers. It was released in June 1982 as the first single and title track from Rogers' album of the same name. It is also the theme song to Rogers' 1982 film Six Pack. Rogers wrote the song with Thom Schuyler, David Malloy and Even Stevens.
Endless Love: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the film of the same name. The album was released worldwide by Mercury Records and PolyGram in 1981.
Share Your Love is a studio album by country singer Kenny Rogers, released in 1981. Produced by Lionel Richie, it is also Rogers' first with Liberty Records besides his Greatest Hits album. The album has sold nine million copies worldwide.
"My Love" is a song by American singer-songwriter Lionel Richie. It was released in 1983 as the third and final single from his self-titled debut solo album. The song features harmony backing vocals by country music singer Kenny Rogers. It reached the top 10 on three notable Billboard magazine charts in the spring of 1983: on the Billboard Hot 100 the song peaked at No. 5; on the Adult Contemporary chart, the song spent four weeks at No. 1; and on the R&B chart, the song topped out at No. 6. "My Love" was not among Richie's more successful singles in the United Kingdom, where it only managed No. 70 on the UK Singles Chart. In Canada, it peaked at No. 28 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart.
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"Blaze of Glory" is a song written by Danny Morrison, Johnny Slate, and Larry Keith, and recorded by American country music artist Kenny Rogers. It was released in November 1981 as the third single from the album Share Your Love. The song reached number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1982. The song peaked at number nine on the country chart.
Sylvester Rivers is an American composer, arranger, pianist and producer, based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, he has recorded with numerous major artists including Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, Johnny Mathis, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Kenny Rogers, Village People, Deniece Williams, Ray Parker Jr., Marc Bolan, Shalamar, New Edition, Billy Preston, The Sylvers, Earl Klugh, Maxine Nightingale, Gloria Gaynor, The 5th Dimension and many others. He arranged many chart hits including the Number 1 Billboard Hot Soul Single, Candi Staton's, "Young Hearts Run Free."