Kenny Rogers, They Don’t Make Them Like They Used To (1986)
The best thing about being given far too many Kenny Rogers albums (no shame in a greatest hits or two – and I even saw him live a quarter-century ago or so and it was okay) is finding the hidden gems, like the song You’re My Love on this middling mid-80s album that no one ever cared about much. It’s written by a “Joey Coco” who you and I know better as Prince. And next month it will be released – the Prince demo version – on a forthcoming archival dig from the vault that is being called “Originals”. That’ll be a good album and people will gush about Prince’s version. I’m sure of that. I haven’t heard it yet. But you can hear – if you can bear to – the seeds of greatness hiding int his MOR schmaltz. Kenny is on record saying he reached out to Prince to ask for a song, which makes sense since he’d had such luck with Lionel Richie among other then-contemporary pop songwriting legends. Prince replied by just biffing a song at him from the junk-pile. It was apparently written in 1982 – which suggests it might have been in the build-up to the Purple Rain-era, or possibly for Vanity or Apollonia or Sheila E. or for him to duet with any of those girls or any other of his ladies…
Anyway, Kenny’s producer shredded it and rebuilt it as some wannabe 80s sitcom soundtrack. It’s gross. But I love it. And it’s the highlight of this record.

Sample Track: You’re My Love

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