Like everyone else, I woke up to the news on Saturday morning that Kenny Rogers had passed at the age of 81. And I thought it'd be a little more interesting to look at his entire career, beginning with the group The First Edition, whose first hit predated Kenny's first solo hit by a decade. I've done playlists before where I've folded together a group and a solo career, and Kenny had a similar career arc to Ray Parker Jr. And Raydio or Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan -- releasing albums first under the group name, then with the lead singer and the group getting equal billing on some albums, and then albums from them as a solo artist. Rogers had some great solo songs -- I think my favorite is "Lucille" -- but The First Edition's biggest hit "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" is definitely a high point of his long career.

Kenny Rogers & The First Edition deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. I Found A Reason w/ The First Edition
2. If I Could Only Change Your Mind w/ The First Edition
3. Last Few Threads Of Love w/ The First Edition
4. Good Time Liberator w/ The First Edition
5. A Stranger In My Place w/ The First Edition
6. Love Woman w/ The First Edition
7. Tulsa Turnaround w/ The First Edition
8. Calico Silver w/ The First Edition
9. There's An Old Man In Our Town
10. Puttin' In Overtime At Home
11. Mother Country Music
12. Lying Again
13. The Loving Gift w/ Dottie West
14. Something About Your Song
15. Morgana Jones
16. Making Music For Money
17. You Turn The Light On
18. Gideon Tanner
19. Long Arm Of The Law
20. Goin' Back To Alabama
21. Greybeard
22. Maybe You Should Know
23. Farther I Go
24. Living With You
25. Heart To Heart
26. With Bells On w/ Dolly Parton

Track 1 from The First Edition by The First Edition (1967)
Track 2 from The First Edition's 2nd by The First Edition (1968)
Track 3 from The First Edition '69 by The First Edition (1969)
Track 4 from Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (1969)
Track 5 from Something's Burning by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (1970)
Track 6 from Tell It All Brother by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (1970)
Track 7 from Transition by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (1971)
Track 8 from The Ballad Of Calico by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (1972)
Track 9 from Love Lifted Me by Kenny Rogers (1976)
Tracks 10 and 11 from Kenny Rogers by Kenny Rogers (1977)
Track 12 from Daytime Friends by Kenny Rogers (1977)
Track 13 from Every Time Two Fools Collide by Kenny Rogers & Dottie West (1978)
Track 14 from Love Or Something Like It by Kenny Rogers (1978)
Tracks 15 and 16 from The Gambler by Kenny Rogers (1978)
Track 17 from Kenny by Kenny Rogers (1979)
Track 18 from Gideon by Kenny Rogers (1980)
Track 19 from Greatest Hits by Kenny Rogers (1980)
Tracks 20 and 21 from Share Your Love by Kenny Rogers (1981)
Track 22 from Love Will Turn You Around by Kenny Rogers (1982)
Track 23 from We've Got Tonight by Kenny Rogers (1983)
Track 24 from Eyes That See In The Dark by Kenny Rogers (1983)
Track 25 from What About Me? by Kenny Rogers (1984)
Track 26 from Once Upon A Christmas by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton (1984)

Kenny Rogers was already almost 40 with the signature silver in his beard by the time he became a major star, so naturally he'd kicked around the music scene a good while before that. He released doo wop singles as 'Kenneth Rogers' in the '50s, then played upright bass with the folk institution The New Christy Minstrels, before breaking off with a few NCM bandmates to form The First Edition, who had this cool, unique sound that combined country, R&B, and psychedelic rock. At first, Kenny Rogers was mainly The First Edition's bassist, with primary songwriter Mike Settle sharing most of the lead vocals with Thelma Lou Camacho. But Rogers sang lead on two songs on the group's self-titled debut that both became singles, foreshadowing how he'd ultimately become the face of the group. One of those singles was the top 10 hit "Just Dropped In," famously featured in The Big Lebowski. The other single, "I Found A Reason," didn't chart, so it felt like fair game to feature in the deep cuts playlist, given that it's pretty much the first Kenny Rogers lead vocal on an album.

On The First Edition's 2nd, Rogers continued to sing more and notched his first couple writing credits, including "If I Could Only Change Your Mind" co-written with guitarist Terry Williams. By the group's 4th album, they were officially billed as Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, and remained that way until the band's mid-'70s breakup. By that point, they'd totally lost commercial momentum -- they released 12 studio albums, but the last 4 failed to chart. Even now, only the first two First Edition albums are available on streaming services in their full original running order, so I cobbled together tracks here from their first 8 albums largely from best-of compilations -- the group didn't have that many hits, so quite a few album tracks appeared on those comps.

It only took Kenny Rogers two solo albums to match and exceed The First Edition's commercial success, and he was off and running. He was never a prolific writer, and penned very few of the singles he's best known for (the biggest being "Love Will Turn You Around,""Sweet Music Man," "What About Me?" and "Love Or Something Like It"). But the same warm, effortlessly inviting voice and trademark vibrato that made Rogers the star of The First Edition turned him into a remarkable hit factory, the 43rd biggest Hot 100 artist of all time. It was fun to dig through here and find some great songs, "Puttin' In Overtime At Home" took on a different meaning for me as I head into my 2nd week quarantined in my house during the coronavirus outbreak.

Kenny Rogers definitely has a legacy as one the people that made country into pop music. And I think at his best he was evolving the 'countrypolitan' sound Billy Sherrill developed with George Jones, particularly on his biggest album, the Sherrill-produced The Gambler. A number of songs Rogers first recorded with The First Edition -- some self-written, some by Alex Harvey and other songwriters -- were re-recorded for his solo records, and The Gambler alone featured 4 songs first recorded by The First Edition. It's funny to think that "Making Music For Money" originated on The First Edition's unsuccessful final album that was only released in New Zealand, and then was re-recorded for an album that went 5x platinum -- the lyric can really take on different undertones depending on the context. Rogers scatting along with the guitar solo on "Morgana Jones" is probably the most entertainingly silly moment in his catalog. And I especially love Kenny's 1978 version of "Something About Your Song," which expands on the funky horn arrangement of The First Edition's 1973 version.

For someone who didn't necessarily make very ambitious records, Kenny Rogers ended up making two concept albums, albeit written and conceptualized by other people. The First Editions's The Ballad Of Calico was written by Michael Murphey, who went onto a solo career as one of the leaders of the 'outlaw country' movement. And at the height of Rogers' solo fame he made Gideon, a concept album about a cowboy, sort of a charming Red Headed Stranger-style record, that was written by Kim Carnes and featured a duet with Carnes that really launched her career as a solo artist.

Rogers and Dottie West made a couple albums together and made some of country's biggest male-female duets. And I thought their best track together was "The Loving Gift," a song Kris Kristofferson wrote a few years earlier for Johnny Cash to sing with June Carter Cash. Of course, Rogers made his biggest duet with Dolly Parton, but the only full-length they ever recorded together was a Christmas album. And "Islands In The Stream" was from an entire album written and produced by the Gibb brothers, "Eyes That See In The Dark," but there's a lot of talent all over later Rogers album. I particularly like "Maybe You Should Know," which features Beatles/Stones sideman Billy Preston on keys and Little Feat's Fred Tackett on guitar.

One of his most famous songs, "Lady," was recorded as a new track for his 1980 Greatest Hits album, which featured another unreleased song, "Long Arm of the Law," that wasn't released as a single but is still probably pretty well known just for appearing on his only diamond-selling record. After the success of "Lady," Lionel Richie produced the next Kenny Rogers album, Share Your Love, although none of the four songs Richie wrote on the album was ever released as a single -- even "Goin' Back To Alabama," which has Michael Jackson and Richie on backing vocals. It's interesting that Richie never recorded "Goin' Back To Alabama" himself, since it's clearly an autobiographical song about his home state (Rogers is from Texas and lived in Georgia).

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 4:19 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.