Kenny Rogers - A YouTube Playlist
When I went to bed last night, my mind was whirling with playlist ideas, like songs heralding spring or just celebrating the fact that it's Saturday. Then I woke up to the news that Kenny Rogers passed away overnight at the age of 81, and I knew that all I wanted to do was play songs by the bearded balladeer with the velvety voice whose career began in folk, went through a psychedelic pop phase with the First Edition and ultimately became one of country music's most successful storytellers.
Starting with the First Edition's biggest hit, Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) might seem in poor taste given the circumstances, and you can always check out its iconic use in The Big Lebowski's famous surreal dream sequence, so here's a clip of Kenny Rogers and the First Edition from the band's Vancouver-shot TV series Rollin' on the River, performing Reuben James with Rogers displaying the deft bass playing that he previously employed in the New Christy Minstrels.
Another hit from Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Something's Burning reached number 11 in the Top 40 in 1970, although it's possible that the song's suggestive nature prevented it from climbing higher as some radio stations opted not to play it. It's hard to imagine Rogers courting controversy, as the song sounds relatively tame today, but this was only a few years after people found offense in Wake Up, Little Susie and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.
When the First Edition called it a day in the mid-'70s, Kenny's rugged look and lightly sandpapered vocal cords allowed him to ride down the easy side of the outlaw country movement, and he struck gold with his 1976 self-titled solo album and a number one crossover hit that you heard everywhere you went. It also inspired numerous Dad Jokes with the punchline "You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel."
At this point, Rogers becomes a Nashville hit machine, and I can already imagine the songs rolling through your head right now, especially his collaborations with the Great Smoky Mountains songbird herself, Dolly Parton. But before he teamed with Dolly, his country career got an early boost from Dottie West, with four Top 10 country hits together, and a memorable 1977 duet album When Two Fools Collide.
And then there was the hit that needs no introduction.
This is probably blasphemy, but as popular as The Gambler is, I think I like his 1979 story song The Coward of the County just a little bit more.
We're on a roll now, and Kenny had so many hits it's hard to pick and choose for this grab bag approach, but let me take care of an earworm that's been going through all our heads since we heard the sad news today.
From the same album that gave us Islands in the Stream, the title track Eyes That See in the Dark displays the full breadth of Rogers' collaboration with the Bee Gees, who wrote or co-wrote all of the songs, with brother Barry Gibb handling the production. "Pure yacht rock" as someone posted on Twitter this morning, smoother than the gold-plated surface of a Grammy Award.
Thirty years later, Kenny's and Dolly's friendship remained strong, through other hits and one of the most beloved Christmas albums of all time. It's a little early for holiday songs, so here's Rogers' last charting single, 2013's You Can't Make Old Friends, a fitting duet with Parton that seems like the perfect note to go out on.
You never know how much you love somebody until they’re gone. I’ve had so many wonderful years and wonderful times with my friend Kenny, but above all the music and the success I loved him as a wonderful man and a true friend. pic.twitter.com/hIQLIvt8pr
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) March 21, 2020
