Long before I knew of his pop/rock career I identified him as a country singer. "Lucille" was the first recording of his that I'd heard in the early 1980s as a kid. I have several CDs by him of hit songs. Some of my favorites are "Coward of the County", "Buried Treasure", "The Gambler", "Lucille", "Crazy", "20 Years Ago", "Through the Years", and his duets with Dolly Parton "Islands in the Stream", "Love is Strange", and their Christmas song, "Bells". He and Ronnie Milsap recorded a spectacular duet, "Make No Mistake, She's Mine". Kenny teamed up with Wynonna Judd and recorded a song that often gets played during the Christmas season, "Mary, Did You Know?". Again, those recordings are just some of my favorites. I could easily triple the amount of songs. You can read a memorial article by clicking HERE. You can leave commentary here about Kenny or on the site I provided a link to. The very first Kenny Rogers song I remember hearing as a kid in the early 1980s was "Lucille". Later on "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly instantly became a favorite of mine. It was the first 45rpm single that I remember being purchased at a retail store...my grandparent's purchased the single at a local store, Gold Circle.
Kenny, as I mentioned, had a lengthy career in pop and rock music before he made the change to country music in the mid 1970s. In the early '60s he was a member of a group called The New Christy Minstrels. His most popular affiliation with pop music came with his membership with the First Edition...he eventually become the band's headliner on records and in concert. Their most popular recordings were "Just Dropped In to See What Condition my Condition Was In", "Reuben James", and "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town". Those two recordings hit in the late '60s. After making the move to country music in the mid '70s it took several releases before "Lucille" came along. Once that became a hit he more or less became a superstar in country music and within the next five years had racked up more hit singles and awards and had sold more records than at any time in his career. His music was also crossing over to pop and Adult-Contemporary radio formats with regularity.
His trophy case is lined with awards from every major and fan-voted organization from the Country Music Association (CMA) to Music City News. In the realm of country music media the 'big award' is often the nickname for the CMA Entertainer of the Year award. Kenny didn't win Entertainer of the Year through the CMA organization...but he did win Entertainer of the Year from the Academy of Country Music (ACM) in 1978. He was named CMA Male Vocalist of the Year in 1979 and his album, The Gambler, was named CMA Album of the Year. He and Dottie West were named CMA Vocal Duo of the Year in 1979. The bulk of his awards come from the cross-genre organization, American Music Awards (AMA). His country singles were crossing over with such frequency that the AMA named him their Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist in 1981. He won a Grammy for "The Gambler" and later he and Ronnie Milsap won a Grammy for their duet, "Make No Mistake, She's Mine".
His duet recordings with Dottie, some music historians have said, helped a lot of skeptical country disc jockeys and fans, in general, to accept Kenny as a country singer. He would have several other duet partners in his career...he had hits with Sheena Easton as well as Kim Carnes...later on he recorded a duet with Ronnie Milsap and also recorded with Wynonna Judd, Gladys Knight, Don Henley, and others. He was part of a trio recording in 1984, "What About Me?". The two artists joining him were Kim Carnes and James Ingram. That single was a smash hit on Adult-Contemporary radio stations in America and Canada. The 1980 album, Greatest Hits, was another international smash album. It contained, at the time, a brand new song that became a monster hit throughout the world, "Lady", from the pen of his record producer, Lionel Richie. The single reached number one Country for one week but spent six weeks at number one Pop. The album also contained "Love The World Away", which had previously been featured on the soundtrack album of Urban Cowboy. It's appearance on Greatest Hits along side "Lady" and his recent duet hit with Kim Carnes, "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer", helped this particular album sell millions upon millions of copies worldwide. The fact that is also contained "Lucille" and "The Gambler", too, only added to the sales. The album has sold more than 13,000,000 copies worldwide. The success of "The Gambler" provided Kenny with an unofficial nickname among music fans...the song would eventually spawn a series of television movies starring Kenny as the gambler, Brady Hawkes. Kenny starred in five television movies based on "The Gambler" between the years 1980 and 1994. His acting career wasn't limited to this series of television movies. He starred in several others: Coward of the County (1981), Six Pack (1982), Wild Horses (1985), Rio Diablo (1993), and a couple of films where he played a character named MacShayne... MacShayne: Winner Take All (1994) and MacShayne: Roll of the Dice (1994).
Career Achievement Awards are given to performers in the latter half of their career to recognize their overall contributions. The first such award/recognition for Kenny Rogers arrived in 2000. The Nashville Network Awards (TNN) presented him with their Career Achievement award. It was the equivalent of the Music City News Living Legend Award. In 2003 an organization called The International Entertainers Buyers Association presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2007 the music publisher, ASCAP, presented Kenny with their Golden Note Award. In 2009 he was part of a group of entertainers that were presented a Cliffie Stone Award at the ACM Awards. The other recipients that year were Jerry Reed, Hank Williams Jr., and Randy Travis. In 2010 Kenny received an American Eagle Award. In 2013 he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The same year he was presented with a newly established honor, The Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. This award was created by the CMA and named for it's first recipient, Willie Nelson, in 2012. Kenny received this award in 2013. Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Kris Kristofferson have since been recipients of this award. In 2017 Kenny was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. He had been on a Farewell Tour for a couple of years but later in the tour health issues caused him to cancel all remaining concert dates. His last concert took place in Nashville,TN on October 25, 2017 but he had been scheduled to appear overseas, as well, in 2018 prior to the early 2018 announcement that the upcoming concerts were cancelled due to health reasons. The name of that farewell tour was The Gambler's Last Deal. I don't have any information on the cause of death or exactly what medical ailments he was going through in his final years. The official statement is he passed away from natural causes under the care of Hospice on March 20, 2020 at the age of 81.
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| Kenny Rogers: August 21, 1938 - March 20, 2020 |
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