| The Kenny Rogers Story | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | 1985 | |||
| Recorded | 1976-83 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Label | Liberty Records | |||
| Kenny Rogers chronology | ||||
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The Kenny Rogers Story is a compilation album by country singer Kenny Rogers.
| The Kenny Rogers Story | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | ||||
| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | 1985 | |||
| Recorded | 1976-83 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Label | Liberty Records | |||
| Kenny Rogers chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Kenny Rogers Story is a compilation album by country singer Kenny Rogers.
As one of the many collections issued by Rogers, The Kenny Rogers Story: 20 Golden Hits was issued in the UK in 1985. It was never released in the US, and collects most of his UK Top 40 pop hits as well as various other singles that, while they never made it to high positions in the mainstream charts there, were popular among fans of both country and easy listening/middle of the road genres. It is similar to the 1983 issued 20 Greatest Hits from the US.
For this album, Rogers sang solo several songs from his days with The First Edition in the 1960s and early 1970s, including the No. 1 hit "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and the top ten success "Something's Burning", as well as "Reuben James" (while this was not a pop hit in Britain, it was nevertheless well known, receiving regular airplay). Elsewhere the album includes tracks from his solo days with United Artists Records and Liberty Records. (See below for song list). Some fans have been bemused as to why his 1983 hit single with Dolly Parton, "Islands in the Stream", is "missing" on this collection. However, this track was recorded with RCA Nashville after Kenny left Liberty.
In addition to being issued on the popular formats of vinyl, cassette and compact disc, The Kenny Rogers Story was also issued on the short lived Digital Compact Cassette. The album was eventually deleted in the mid-1990s following the release of the similar themed collection Daytime Friends - The Very Best of Kenny Rogers .
The Kenny Rogers Story was a huge success reaching No. 1 in the UK country albums chart and No. 4 on the pop chart . It remained one of the top selling country collections for over four years, out-selling all his previous albums, and was the biggest selling country album of 1985 in the UK. In 1989, it still ranked No. 2 on the UK chart.
In what seems a tradition with Rogers' UK releases, where artwork is oft-duplicated, this album matches the 1985 album Love Is What We Make It .
| No. | Title | Notes | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Lucille" | #1 UK, originally issued on the 1977 album Kenny Rogers | 3:37 |
| 2. | "Lady" | #12 UK, originally issued on the 1980 album Greatest Hits ; in the UK, titled Lady | 3:54 |
| 3. | "The Long Arm of the Law" | Originally issued on the 1980 album Greatest Hits (in the UK, titled Lady | 4:20 |
| 4. | "You Decorated My Life" | Originally issued on the 1979 album Kenny | 3:40 |
| 5. | "Sweet Music Man" | Originally issued on the 1977 album Daytime Friends | 4:21 |
| 6. | "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" | A 1977 re-recording of a First Edition hit from 1969 | 2:52 |
| 7. | "Love or Something Like It" | Originally issued on the 1978 album Love Or Something Like It | 2:54 |
| 8. | "Through the Years" | Originally issued on the 1981 album Share Your Love | 4:46 |
| 9. | "You Are So Beautiful" | Originally issued on the 1983 album We've Got Tonight | 2:54 |
| 10. | "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" (with Kim Carnes) | Originally issued on the 1980 album Gideon | 3:41 |
| 11. | "The Gambler" | Originally issued on the 1978 album The Gambler | 3:32 |
| 12. | "Daytime Friends" | #39 UK, originally issued on the 1977 album Daytime Friends | 3:14 |
| 13. | "We've Got Tonight" (with Sheena Easton) | #28 UK, originally issued on the 1983 album We've Got Tonight | 3:53 |
| 14. | "Love Lifted Me" | Originally issued on the 1976 album Love Lifted Me | 3:47 |
| 15. | "Coward of the County" | #1 UK, originally issued on the 1979 album Kenny | 4:20 |
| 16. | "Reuben James" | A 1977 re-recording of a First Edition single | 2:41 |
| 17. | "Desperado" | Originally issued on the 1977 album Daytime Friends | 3:47 |
| 18. | "She Believes In Me" | #42 UK, originally issued on the 1978 album The Gambler | 4:13 |
| 19. | "Something's Burning" | A 1977 re-recording of a 1970 First Edition hit | 4:20 |
| 20. | "Blaze of Glory" | Originally issued on the 1981 album Share Your Love | 2:38 |
Kenneth Ray Rogers was an American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted more than 420 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.
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The Gambler is the sixth studio album by Kenny Rogers, released by United Artists in December 1978. One of his most popular, it has established Rogers' status as one of the most successful artists of the 1970s and 1980s. The album reached many markets around the world, such as the Far East and Jamaica, with Rogers later commenting "When I go to Korea or Hong Kong people say 'Ah, the gambler!'". The album has sold over 35 million copies.
Judy Kay "Juice" Newton is an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician. To date, Newton has received five Grammy Award nominations in the Pop and Country Best Female Vocalist categories - winning once in 1983 - as well as an ACM Award for Top New Female Artist and two Billboard Female Album Artist of the Year awards. Newton's other awards include a People's Choice Award for "Best Female Vocalist" and the Australian Music Media's "Number One International Country Artist."
Mickey Leroy Gilley is an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as well. Among his biggest hits are "Room Full of Roses," "Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time," and the remake of the Soul hit "Stand by Me". Gilley has charted 42 singles in the top 40 on the US Country chart. He is a cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl McVoy, Jim Gilley, Sonny Gilley, and Jimmy Swaggart.
Dorothy "Dottie" Marie Marsh West was an American country music singer and songwriter. Along with her friends and fellow recording artists Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, she is considered one of the genre's most influential and groundbreaking female artists. West's career started in the 1960s, with her top-10 hit, "Here Comes My Baby Back Again", which won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1965, the first woman in country music to receive a Grammy.
"Islands in the Stream" is a song written and later recorded by the Bee Gees. It was sung by American country music artists Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. It was released in August 1983 as the first single from Rogers's album Eyes That See in the Dark. Named after the Ernest Hemingway novel, it was originally written for Marvin Gaye in an R&B style, only later to be changed for the Kenny Rogers album.
"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" is a song written by Mel Tillis about a paralyzed veteran who lies helplessly as his wife "paints [herself] up" to go out for the evening without him; he believes she is going in search of a lover. As he hears the door slam behind her, he claims that he would murder her if he could move to get his gun, and pleads for her to reconsider. A line in the song about a "crazy Asian war" and the time of the song's release led to the assumption the song was about a veteran of the Vietnam War—though this was never stated in the lyrics—although Tillis stated that the song was about a veteran of World War II.
Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, until 1969 billed as The First Edition, were an American rock band that fused rock and roll, R&B, folk, and country. Its core members were Kenny Rogers, Mickey Jones and Terry Williams. The band formed in 1967, with folk musician Mike Settle and the operatically-trained Thelma Camacho completing the lineup.
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Once Upon a Christmas is a collaborative studio album by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. It was released on October 29, 1984, by RCA Records. The album was produced by Rogers with David Foster. It it Rogers' second Christmas album, following 1981's Christmas, and Parton's first. The album's release was accompanied by a CBS television special, Kenny & Dolly: A Christmas to Remember. The album was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA in 1989.
"Goodbye Marie" is a country-pop song written by Mel McDaniel and Dennis Linde. The song is about a man who has to leave his lover to head for "the lonesome highway" back to his home in Houston, Texas. It was first released by Johnny Rodriguez on his March 1979 album, Rodriguez Was Here.
"We've Got Tonite" is a song written by American rock music artist Bob Seger, from his album Stranger in Town (1978). The single record charted twice for Seger, and was developed from a prior song that he had written. Further versions charted in 1983 for Kenny Rogers as a duet with Sheena Easton, and again in 2002 for Ronan Keating.
"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.
Greatest Hits is the second compilation album by country music superstar Kenny Rogers. It was released in September 1980 and issued by Liberty Records. The album marks Rogers' first release after United Artists Group merged with Liberty. The album has achieved diamond certification.
"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.
"That Crazy Feeling" is a song written by Ray Doggett and recorded by American country music artist Kenny Rogers. It was released in 1957 as his debut single as a solo act, first by Kix Records and then picked up in 1958 by Carlton Records.
Ben James Peters was an American country music songwriter who wrote many #1 songs. Charley Pride recorded 68 of his songs and 6 of them went to #1 on the American country charts. Peters was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.
20 Greatest Hits is a compilation album by Kenny Rogers released by Liberty Records in 1983.