In the 1980’s Kenny Rogers was on a hot streak. Everyone wanted to sing with him or produce him. On this day in music history, October 29, 1983 Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton had the #1 song in the country with Islands in the Stream. A lot of the credit would have to go to the leader of the Bee Gees Barry Gibb. Kenny remembered a song that Barry sent him a few years ago. He was looking for new material and a producer so he got Barry, along with Karl Richardson and Albhy Galuten to produce his next album Eyes That See in the Dark. Islands in the Stream was the first single from the album and the song had many rewards. It was the only single that year to go platinum. It was #1 on the pop, country and adult contemporary charts. It won the award for best country single at the American Music Awards and it was named Vocal Duet of the Year and Single record of the Year by the academy of Country Music. Kenny and Dolly got along so well when recording the song that they continued recording together. They released a Christmas album in 1984. Toured together to promote their music and Kenny appeared on Dolly’s next album called Real Love.
While this may have been their first professional meeting they had traveled parallel roads. Both started in the sixties. Kenny was with the New Christy Minstrels and Dolly was a singer on the Porter Wagner show. Kenny left to form his own group the First Edition and Dolly left the TV show for a solo career. By the 1970’s Kenny had gone solo also. In the 1980’s it seemed like neither one could do wrong. Dolly had hit singles and big budget movies that she was the star of and Kenny had hit records and was the star of the Gambler movies based on his hit record. In 2000 Kenny had his first hit in 15 years when his song Buy Me a Rose reached #40 on the pop charts. Recently he has released a new cd of music.
Here is a video of them singing the song on television.
After listening to them sing the song on the video I have to say that Kenny is very good but it is Dolly who, in my opinion, really sells the song.
No comments:
Post a Comment