Posted on 11/16/2024 1:44:34 PM PST by nickcarraway
‘The Gambler’ single and album found the entertainer in the hottest form of his life.
Kenny Rogers was in the hottest form of his life when he went into the studio on June 16, 1978. He was there to record the chart-topping title track from the multi-platinum album The Gambler.
As he did so, the song was just finishing a modest country chart appearance for the singer, writer, and Capitol recording artist who had written it two years earlier, Don Schlitz. But his version only climbed to No.65. With Rogers the biggest male artist in country music at the time, the moment was ripe for a cover featuring his unmistakeable gruff tones.
In April 1977, another trademark story song, “Lucille,” had begun a run of four country chart-toppers in just 16 months. That song, by Roger Bowling and Hal Bynum, also brought Rogers back to the international forefront, topping the UK pop chart.
A suite of country No.1s It started the sequence of country No.1s that also included “Daytime Friends,” the duet with Dottie West “Everytime Two Fools Collide,” and “Love Or Something Like It.”’ Another pairing with West, “Anyone Who Isn’t Me Tonight,” then reached No.2.
“The Gambler” was released by United Artists in November 1978 alongside the album of the same name. Both were cast-iron smashes from the word go. The single spent three weeks atop the country listings at the very end of the year, reaching No.16 on the pop chart.
The LP became the CMA Award winner as Album of the Year, spent 112 weeks on the survey, Rogers’ best-ever showing for a studio album). The LP went five times platinum in America alone. It was one of the most successful gambles country music had ever seen. What’s more, the song’s enduring popularity led to a June 2022 “Taxi Gang” reggae mix by Sly Dunbar, of celebrated Jamaican duo Sly & Robbie.
A great musical talent.
The song also makes a good philosophical point.
A long successful career
Think of how strong the competition was for the gambler to only go to #16 in the pop charts.
Star Trek - Gambler - Kenny Rogers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxb3y1mlHyY
I dont play an instrument and can only carry a tune with a bucket. But I did sing my kids to sleep with that song. They still love it ... but want someone else to sing it.
That Crazy Feeling (1957)
This is a different song, but it seems to ba about the same Lucille.
Lucille-- the Drifters (1954)
But this was the one Kenny Rogers song that found its way onto the charts out of the country ghetto:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-0-7fg8oAO4
Funny how Elvis’s song “In the Ghetto” has comments turned off. I guess they don’t want questions on 40+ years of the SOS.
Utterly useless advice from a stranger on a train.
I had a friend who was like that. Whatever you did, when it turned out wrong, he was there to tell you how you should have done the other thing.
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” a saying that means, Don’t take risks.
“Nothing ventured nothing gained” a saying that means DO take risks!
So, when do you hold ‘em?
When you find out that you held the better cards.
When do you fold ‘em?
When you find out that the other guy had the better hand.
When do you find out?
When it is too late!
But hey who actually listens to the words of a song anyway?
And a whiskey mooch as well.
When that song came out, Rogers had never been on the Country chart at all.
With first edition, he only had one song that made it to #39 on the country chart. His country career didn't really begin until 1975, and took off in 1977.
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