Willie Nelson turned down the chance to report Kenny Rogers’ #1 hit, The Gambler, and information publication Nation Music Nation has reminded us of the what-could’ve-been story.
American songwriter Don Schlitz wrote The Gambler in 1976. The track had a number of iterations earlier than Kenny Rogers carried out it in November 1978.
Schlitz shopped the track round for 2 years earlier than Bobby Naked recorded it. The Gambler was then recorded by Johnny Money and featured on his Gone Lady album. Nevertheless, it wasn’t till Kenny Rogers launched it in November 1978 that The Gambler turned a crossover success.
Not solely did the track hit #1 on the Nation Chart, however it additionally crossed over to the Pop Chart – a rarity in 1978. Rogers’ The Gambler noticed him win the Grammy Award for Greatest Male Nation Vocal Efficiency in 1980.
In 2020, shortly after Rogers’ passing, Willie Nelson revealed that Rogers initially provided him The Gambler, however he turned it down.
Talking with TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager, Nelson stated, “He tried to get me to report The Gambler. He stated, ‘I received this track right here; I believe you need to do it.’ And he performed it for me, and I stated, ‘It’s an ideal track, however I don’t suppose I’ll do it…’”
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On why he rejected the supply, Nelson defined that he was already performing the wordy The Purple Headed Stranger each evening and didn’t need one other lengthy track added to his repertoire.
That track already “has 100 verses in it, and it’s a protracted track,” he stated. “And I stated, I simply don’t need to do one other lengthy track, and I can’t give up doing Purple Headed Stranger. So, he stated, ‘Okay, I’ll report it myself.’ And so, he did, and there it’s.”
Bush Hager requested if he regretted not claiming The Gambler, to which Nelson responded, “No, that was Kenny’s track all the best way.”
It is a bit of an outdated story value revisiting, no? It’s worthwhile as Rolling Stone ranked The Gambler because the Twenty first-best nation track in its latest listing of 200 Best Nation Songs of All Time. You possibly can try the listing in its entirety right here.
Final June, the Wanda Rogers-curated and govt produced Kenny Rogers posthumous album, Life Is Like A Tune, was launched.
Rogers handed away in March 2020 of pure causes on the age of 81. The album was launched in reminiscence of Rogers to honour him and his musical legacy.
Life Is Like A Tune was Rogers’s first non-holiday studio album in a decade and his solely non-compilation/non-reissued full-length album to be launched on vinyl since 1991.
