AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
![]() In Six Pack (1982), Kenny stars as a race car driver who tangles with six roughhouse orphans. Kenny also tried to parlay his popularity as a major country singer into a conservative film career. The second, Wild Horses (1985), had him starring as a has-been rodeo champion looking for personal fulfillment herding wild mustangs. The first was also based on a hit Kenny Rogers song, Coward of the County (1981), (Country, #3) in which he played a town preacher who tries to mentor his young "cowardly" nephew. Two other old-fashioned western TV movies followed. This led to four equally popular sequels - Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues (1983), Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues (1987), The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991) and Gambler V: Playing for Keeps (1994). The feature had Kenny starring as poker-playing card shark Brady Hawkes, who attempts to unite with a son he never knew. ![]() ![]() In 1980, he touched off a modest, lightweight, but highly appealing acting career starting with the Southern-styled TV-movie The Gambler (1980), based on his #1 1979 Grammy-winning song hit. After charting lower and lower, he wisely branched off into other successful areas. Into the 1980's Kenny began to feel a downswing in his singing career. ![]() He also made popular hit duets with both country female stars (Parton and Dottie West) as well as the distaff pop elite ( Kim Carnes and Sheena Easton). It didn't take long before he started chalking up a string of country-tinged 'Top 20' pop hits with "Lucille" (#5), "Don't Fall in Love With a Dreamer" (#4, with Kim Carnes), "Through the Years" (#13), "We've Got Tonight" (#6, with Sheena Easton) and his two #1 hit sellers "Islands in the Stream" (with Dolly Parton) and "Lady." By the late 1970s, the (now) silver fox had sold over $100 million worth of records. After a couple more years of producing songs that couldn't reach the "Top 20," the group decided to disband in 1976 and, inevitable as it was, Kenny went solo. Sadly, the pressures of taping a weekly show caused extreme friction within the group and eventually took its toll. The First Edition enjoyed worldwide success, appeared on such popular shows as "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," had featured roles in the TV movie The Dream Makers (1975) and went on to host the syndicated TV variety series Rollin' on the River (1971). By this time, the dark-haired, husky-framed, ear-pierced singer's ingratiating personality and sensual gravel tones, affectionately dubbed "Hippie Kenny," had taken center stage and the group changed their name to "Kenny Rogers and the First Edition" in 1969. Other successes would include "Reuben James" (1969, #26), "Something's Burning" (1970, #11) and "Tell It All Brother" (1970, #17). The First Edition's first Billboard hit, "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" (1968) was a psychedelic rock song which peaked at #5, and was followed by the more popular soft-rock hit "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" (1969) which hit #6 on the US charts and made them a star attraction. He subsequently joined the "New Christy Minstrels" 1966 as a singer and double bass/bass guitar player, then splintered off with others from the popular folk music group a year later to form the rock group "The First Edition," an eclectic-styled rock band whose repertoire included rock and roll, R&B, folk and country. The group recorded the song "Poor Little Doggie," and Kenny, age 19, recorded his first solo song, "That Crazy Feeling," for a small Houston label, Carlton Records, and his career was off and running. Kenny took an early interest in singing and, as a teenager, joined a doo-wop recording group called "The Scholars". Of humble Irish and Native American heritage, the boy grew up in the poorer section of Houston, but would become the first member of his family to graduate from high school. Born in Houston, Texas on August 21, 1938, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, actor, record producer and entrepreneur Kenneth Ray Rogers was the fourth of eight children born to a carpenter father who worked in a shipyard and a mother who was a hospital nurse's assistant.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |