"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.
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
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.
Musical structure
The song is sung in moderate 4 4 time,with Rogers and Parton alternating lead vocals. Their version is in C major when Rogers sings lead,but changes to A-flat major when Parton takes over the lead.[10]
Reception
Cash Box said that "the sound is simply gorgeous,as is the melody,as are the voices."[11]
In 2024,Rolling Stone ranked the song at #104 on its 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time ranking.[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 July2014[update],it had also sold 245,577 digital copies in the UK.[14]As of 2017[update],it had racked up 287,200 downloads and 4.83 million streams in the UK.[15]
In popular media
In April 2008,South Bend,Indiana,radio station WZOW played the song continuously for several days on end,[16] a stunt drawing attention to the station's format change from alternative rock to adult contemporary. The song is prominently featured in the 2025 film,You're Cordially Invited,starring Will Farrell and Reese Witherspoon.
On March 8, 2009, Welsh celebrities Ruth Jones and Rob Brydon, in character as Vanessa Jenkins and Bryn West from the hit BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey, released a version of the song as a single for Comic Relief. Sir Tom Jones also features on the song, performing the final verse and chorus, whilst Robin Gibb appears on the single as a backing vocalist.
Re-titled "(Barry) Islands in the Stream", in reference to the Barry Island setting of Gavin & Stacey,[49] it entered at the top of the UK Singles Chart on March 15, 2009. This meant the Gibb Brothers had achieved number one songs in five successive decades, the first songwriters to achieve this feat. It also made Tom Jones, at the age of 68, the oldest person to have a UK number one song, until the record was taken in 2020 by Captain Tom Moore for his involvement in "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the age of 99.[50]
The video was filmed in Barry Island, Las Vegas and the Nevada desert, with both Gibb and Jones appearing in the video alongside Jones and Brydon. Nigel Lythgoe also makes a cameo appearance as a talent competition judge.
Track listing
CD single
"(Barry) Islands in the Stream" – 3:56
"Wisemen" – 3:14
"Somethin' Stupid" – 2:48
"Islands in the Stream" (music video) – 4:21
DVD single
"(Barry) Islands in the Stream" (full-length video) – 8:56
"(Barry) Islands in the Stream" (making of the video) – 14:30
Danish blues-rock singer Peter Thorup and pop singer Anne-Grete Rendtorff had great success with a version with Danish lyrics in 1984 called "Skibe uden Sejl" (Ships Without Sails). The song was used as title track for the Danish TV series Måske i morgen (Maybe Tomorrow) shown on Danish national television DR.
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