Kenny Rogers, The Best Of Kenny Rogers (1979)
It’s also known as The Singles Collection – but to me this is The Best Of Kenny Rogers. And it’s special not just for that brilliant kit Ken is decked out in on the cover – but because my dad had this on cassette tape and round and round it would go on car trips. Partly it would drive us mad – and the syrupy ballads were always too much. But partly it was brilliant; Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town is harrowing – but awesome. The Gambler, obviously it’s played-out now, completely, but in the 1980s, growing up, this thing was awesome. I’m really not sure why. It just was. So many of these songs straddle awful/brilliant: Daytime Friends, Lucille, Love Lifted Me. I don’t know – if I hadn’t grown up with them I’d probably just hate them. I do love She Believes In Me though – a soppy gem. And of course the early First Edition stuff is great (Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In). I went to a Kenny Rogers concert once – and it played out just like this compilation did/does: alternately kinda superb and kinda awful/embarrassing. Like so many things in life, as long as you’re sure you’re in on the joke it’s okay to laugh, otherwise you just look/sound crazy.
Sample Track: Reuben James
The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown
Kenny was our car trip companion too. Dad only listened to classical music at home, but on trips to Wellington or Taupo we were exposed to the marvellous world of country music. I always thought that Lucille went “You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille/ four hundred children and a goat in the field” but apparently that’s not quite right.
Yep, same experience for me basically. I first heard Kenny & this album in the back of a car with my brother and my Dad and his work colleague in the front driving to Hawkes Nest on the NSW mid north coast for a deep sea fishing weekend. The weekend was verbs trance as that wasn’t an activity my Dad routinely did. The first and last time I’m pretty sure. I caught a good sized tuna and a small shark which we let go. The real memory however is of listening to this cassette and being woken up to the deliciously daggy but seriously catchy music of Kenny. It basically got played the while weekend on demand from My brother Brian and I. And the sneaky realization of what Kenny was singing about on ‘Daytime Friends’ after the tenth listen! How good! This is one of the CDs I have also introduced my kids to in similar fashion (long drives) as part of their musical education. I never bothered to listen to another Kenny Rogers except for the duet with Dolly Parton which I secretly adore. I recently bought a Kenny Rogers collection which had most of this music on it, some new numbers but amazingly omitted to include Reuben James which is unforgivable.