Growing up in Houston in the early '80s, it should come as no shock that I was a Kenny Rogers fan as a kid. "The Gambler" was my first favorite song. Hell, the USFL's Houston Gamblers -- the progenitors of the Run and Shoot Offense -- were named after the song.
You may or may not know this, but prior to his turn as one of the biggest country stars of the '70s and '80s, Rogers was the lead singer of First Edition, who scored a Top 5 hit in 1968 with the psychedelic pop hit "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" -- which my fellow Big Lebowski fans know and love from the Dude's dream sequence.
After the band broke up in the mid '70s, Rogers went solo and became one of the most successful and best-selling artists of all-time. Overall, including collaboration albums, he had 25 albums hit the Top 10 of the Billboard Top Country Albums chart as a solo artist, including 11 #1 albums. Including duets (but not group songs, like "We Are the World"), he had 21 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including 9 Top 10 songs and two #1s (1981's "Lady" and 1983's duet with Dolly Parton, "Islands in the Stream"). That pales in comparison to his success on the Billboard Hot Country chart, where (again, including duets/collaborations) he had 56 Top 40 songs, including 36 Top 10 songs and 21 #1s. At one point between 1977 and 1983, he had 23 singles in a row that reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot Country chart, 14 of which hit #1.
His signature album is 1978's The Gambler. As you can see from the photo above, the album came with a fold-out poster of Rogers dressed in what can only be described as gambler gear. Unfortunately, the poster is ripped a little on the top crease. I don't have the album cover itself at home, as that is framed and hanging in my office, along with 31 other album covers.
I'd be lying if I told you I have listened to this album in full before today -- or at least not since the early '80s. The album hit #1 on the Billboard Top County Albums chart and #12 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. It has gone platinum five times over in the U.S. and has sold an astounding 35 million copies worldwide. Both of the singles from the album -- the title track and "She Believes In Me" -- went to #1 on the Billboard Country charts and the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, with the former going to #16 and the latter hitting #5.
The album is actually as country as I would have expected. While there is certainly some country on the album, the songs also range from soft rock to pop to folk to funk to soul.
Favorite song from Side 1: "The Gambler"
Like I was going to choose any other song. I've loved this song for over 40 years. If you only know one Kenny Rogers song, chances are it's this one. Everyone knows the line "you got to know when to hold 'em / know when to fold 'em." It's an iconic song.
Favorite song from Side 2: "Tennessee Bottle"
This is a funky country ditty about stealing moonshine.
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