Kenny Rogers - Every UK Number 1

The Intro

Three years after his first chart-topper, Lucille, country superstar Kenny Rogers returned to the summit of the hit parade with this tale about a pacifist that is pushed too far.

Before

Lucille was quickly followed up with a new album, Daytime Friends, but its singles couldn’t get near the crossover success of the popular single. The title track only just scraped into the top 40 at 39. Even The Gambler, one of his best-known tracks, only made it to 22 in 1978.

Coward of the County was written by Roger Bowling (who co-wrote Lucille) and Billy Edd Wheeler and was the second single from Rogers’ 1979 LP Kenny. Rogers tells the story of his fictional nephew Tommy, who has a reputation for being a coward. But he has his reasons. When he was 10, his father died in prison. On his last visit there, Tommy’s father told him not to repeat his mistakes, that turning the other cheek is not a sign of weakness, and being a fighter doesn’t make you a man. Not often you get a man’s dying words as a chorus, but then, this is country music.

The narration fast forwards 20 years to Tommy as an adult with a girlfriend called Becky. While Tommy is at work one day, Becky is sexually assaulted by three brothers – the Gatlins. When he finds her crying, Tommy has to decide whether to heed the words of his father and risk being called ‘Yellow’ for the rest of his life, or avenging Becky. He chooses the latter and issues some southern justice after meeting the Gatlin boys in a bar. Tommy is coward of the county no longer.

Review

Much like Lucille, Coward of the County is a gripping story for a number 1 song. So it’s a shame that, also like that single, the actual tune is so mediocre, I stop listening and look forward to it ending. If anything it’s of lower standard than his first number 1, the edge of the lyrics obscured by tedious strumming. But as longtime readers will know, country is usually a turn-off for me anyway. First poor number 1 of the 80s.

After

There was some controversy over the name of the villains after the song’s release. The Gatlin Brothers are a real-life country trio, and were understandably unhappy at the reference. Rogers and Wheeler denied it was deliberate, but Bowling had an argument with Larry Gatlin at the 1977 CMA awards, when Lucille won song of the year. Sounds like a very deliberate reference to me.

Rogers went on to release a duet with Kim Carnes in 1980, who was a year away from her own hit, Bette Davis Eyes. Then, he had a number 12 hit with Lady, written by Lionel Richie. In 1983 Rogers returned the favour by singing backing vocals on his single My Love. That year he also had two hit duets – the first, with Sheena Easton – We’ve Got Tonight – reached 28 in the UK.

More successful and memorable was the much-loved Islands in the Stream, with Dolly Parton, which came from his album Eyes That See in the Dark, written and produced by Bee Gee Barry Gibb. Although it became number 1 in the US, it peaked at seven on these shores. Gibb originally co-wrote this song with brothers Maurice and Robin for Marvin Gaye. 26 years later, as (Barry) Islands in the Stream, this Comic Relief version performed by Ruth Jones, Rob Brydon, Tom Jones and Robin Gibb became number 1. In 1985 Rogers sort of achieved his third UK number 1, by joining fellow US musicians under the umbrella name US for Africa on We Are the World.

Rogers’ UK hits dried up, but he continued to have singles success in the US, and also branched out into acting, starring in a series based on The Gambler and a TV movie called Coward of the County. He also reunited with his friend Parton several times – on the 1984 festive album Once Upon a Christmas, 1985 single Real Love and the 2013 song You Can’t Make Old Friends.

In 2015, Rogers announced his farewell tour – ‘The Gambler’s Last Deal’. His final performance, an all-star concert featuring Parton, Richie, the Flaming Lips and more, took place in Nashville, Tennessee in 2017.

The Outro

Rogers had wound his career down early due to a bladder cancer diagnosis in 2017, but the country legend passed away of natural causes on 20 March 2020, aged 81.

The Info

Written by

Roger Bowling & Billy Edd Wheeler

Producer

Larry Butler

Weeks at number 1

2 (16-29 February)

Trivia

Births

22 February: Footballer Martin Garratt

Deaths

16 February: First World War pilot Geoffrey Hornblower Cock/Mathematician Edward Copson/Athlete Percy Legard/Biologist Arthur Loveridge
17 February: Artist Graham Sutherland
18 February: Opera singer Muriel Brunskill
19 February: First World War pilot Bruce Digby-Worsley
21 February: Mycologist Kathleen Simpson
24 February: Engineer Paul Wilson, Baron Wilson of High Wray
25 February: Manchester United chairman Louis Edwards (see ‘Meanwhile…‘)/Welsh poet Caradog Prichard
28 February: Conservative MP Michael Astor/Scottish cricketer Ian Peebles
29 February: Dancer Margaret Morris

Meanwhile…

17 February: British Steel Corporation announced more than 11,000 jobs would be axed at its Welsh plants by the end of March.

25 February: The first episode of political sitcom Yes Minister is broadcast on BBC Two.
Also on this day, Manchester United chairman Louis Edwards died of a heart attack, aged 65. His death came only weeks after allegations about his dealings in connection with the football club and the retail outlet chain he owned.

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