The Intro
US singer-songwriter Kenny Rogers was one of the most popular country-pop crossover artists of all time. This first of two UK number 1s was the song that made him a solo star.
Before
Kenneth Ray Rogers was born the fourth of eight children in Houston, Texas on 21 August 1938. His mother’s name was Lucille – now there’s a coincidence. He was said to be of Irish and Native American ancestry. Rogers grew up in the San Felipe Courts housing project, forming his first band while at Jefferson Davis high school. The Scholars were a doo-wop group, and Rogers sang and played guitar.
Graduating in 1956, he released his debut single That Crazy Feeling a year later and it was a minor hit. He made an appearance on American Bandstand, but a few poor-selling singles later he took to playing bass in jazz group the Bobby Doyle Three instead. They recorded for Columbia but got nowhere, disbanding in 1965. He tried to capture a jazz sound on his next solo single Here’s That Rainy Day in 1966, but again, no luck. So Rogers took to working as a writer, producer and session musician instead.
He moved to Los Angeles later that year and joined folk group the New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player. However, Rogers and other members Mike Settle, Terry Williams, and Thelma Camacho decided to seek their fortune elsewhere. They formed The First Edition in 1967. Fusing rock, psychedelia, folk and country, they featured Rogers on lead vocals and bass, Settle on guitar and backing vocals and Camacho on lead vocals. Drummer Mickey Jones and guitarist and vocalist Terry Williams also joined the line-up.
The First Edition notched up seven top 40 hits in the US, including their excellent cover of Mickey Newbury’s Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), used to great effect in The Big Lebowski (1998). In 1969, then known as Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, they scored a number two hit in the UK with a version of Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town. Something’s Burning reached eight on these shores in 1970. But as the 70s went on their sales dwindled. Rogers saw the writing on the wall and decided to go it alone once more, splitting up the band in 1976.
He signed with United Artists and released his debut LP Love Lifted Me that May. It was only a modest success but five months later he followed it up with Kenny Rogers. Its second single, Lucille, was a smash hit.
Review
Lucille was a slow, unassuming country tale by Roger Bowling and Hal Bynum. I’m no country fan (I may have said this once or 20 times on this blog) and musically, this leaves little impact with me. Compared to what could have been the 406th number 1 (see First Cut Is the Deepest/I Don’t Want to Talk About It), this is rather boring. However, what it does have going for it is the riveting lyrics. Rogers tells the story of a man in a bar in Toledo, Ohio. He gets to talking a disillusioned married woman named Lucille. She’s drunkenly longing for ‘whatever the other life brings’, when her giant of a husband enters the bar. Rogers thinks he’s in big trouble, but rather than attack the narrator, the husband is close to breaking down and says:
‘You’ve picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille
With four hungry children
And a crop in the field’
He says his piece and leaves but the words have a profound effect on the narrator. When it comes to getting it on with Lucille, he can’t forget what her husband said and he decides not to go any further.
Not your average pop lyrics it has to be said. And they are gripping, but the tune is so one-note it does its best to stop me enjoying it and Rogers sounds so weary he’s barely awake. A decent song but not a memorable number 1.
The Outro
Nonetheless, it set Rogers on the way to the fame he craved and he went on to be a true country icon.
The Info
Written by
Roger Bowling & Hal Bynum
Producer
Larry Butler
Weeks at number 1
1 (18-24 June)
Trivia
Births
24 June: TV presenter Kristian Digby
Deaths
19 June: Chief Girl Guide Lady Olave Baden-Powell