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Kenny Rogers

A

andrewduong77

Frequent Participant
Did Kenny Rogers ever made it onto AC or Easy Listening/Adult Standards in the late 70s or 80s? If so, how successful? Did his songs lasted on AC till the 90s? I liked to know any specific AC station in your area or areas you had visited or any specific AC program that had aired Kenny Rogers in the past. Perhaps tracks like "The Gambler", "Lady", "Coward Of The County", "Through The Years", etc.
 
andrewduong77 said:
Did Kenny Rogers ever made it onto AC or Easy Listening/Adult Standards in the late 70s or 80s? If so, how successful? Did his songs lasted on AC till the 90s? I liked to know any specific AC station in your area or areas you had visited or any specific AC program that had aired Kenny Rogers in the past. Perhaps tracks like "The Gambler", "Lady", "Coward Of The County", "Through The Years", etc.
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Kenny Rogers had 22 top ten songs on the Adult Contemporary chart, including number one showings for "She Believes In Me", "Lady", "I Don't Need You", "Share Your Love With Me", "Through the Years", "Love Will Turn You Around", "Islands In The Stream" and "What About Me". There were also three top ten hits for Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. He made the Hot 100 Top Ten nine times and topped it with "Lady" and "Islands In the Stream". Kenny Rogers and the First Edition hit the Hot 100 twice. In addition, he had two B-sides that made the AC top ten. He also had a number one album in 1980 with "Greatest Hits/ If he hadn't been played on Country stations at all, he still would've been a successful artist! This doesn't account for all the songs that charted but didn't make the top ten.
 
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semoochie said:
Kenny Rogers had 22 top ten songs on the Adult Contemporary chart, including number one showings for "She Believes In Me", "Lady", "I Don't Need You", "Share Your Love With Me", "Through the Years", "Love Will Turn You Around", "Islands In The Stream" and "What About Me". There were also three top ten hits for Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. He made the Hot 100 Top Ten nine times and topped it with "Lady" and "Islands In the Stream". Kenny Rogers and the First Edition hit the Hot 100 twice. In addition, he had two B-sides that made the AC top ten. He also had a number one album in 1980 with "Greatest Hits/ If he hadn't been played on Country stations at all, he still would've been a successful artist! This doesn't account for all the songs that charted but didn't make the top ten.
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Until the mid-'80s, you could also hear country artists such as Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap, Eddie Rabbitt and Alabama on AC radio. Country-to-pop crossovers pretty much disappeared during the height of MTV's influence on pop radio -- stations ignored T.G. Sheppard and Sawyer Brown, who had country hits in the mid-80s that would have fit right in on AC 10 years earlier, and played soft new pop like Spandau Ballet and Simply Red instead. Of course, country was changing as well, and by the late '90s the New Traditionalist phenomenon was in full swing. Clint Black, Randy Travis, Patty Loveless and Reba McEntire were far too twangy for an AC station that was playing Boyz II Men to even consider adding.
 
CTListener said:
Until the mid-'80s, you could also hear country artists such as Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap, Eddie Rabbitt and Alabama on AC radio. Country-to-pop crossovers pretty much disappeared during the height of MTV's influence on pop radio
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Because that coincided with the explosion of what we now know as country radio. Before that, there were only a few hundred country stations in the US, mostly in the south. With Docket 80-90, there were many more new FM stations, and some of them went 100% country. In addition, there were some heritage stations that flipped to country as the music grew in popularity. In addition to Kenny Rogers, by the mid 80s you had Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs, Reba McEntire, George Strait, and Don Williams who were all driving this new country format. And then in 1989, Garth Brooks and Clint Black made their debut, and that led to even more country stations. While AC crossovers still happen, with Martina McBride, Keith Urban, and Taylor Swift, it doesn't happen as often as it did.
 
Just changing a typo in my original post, noticed far too late to edit. It was by the late '80s, not '90s, that the New Traditionalists were going strong. The late '90s brought Shania Twain, who brought country crossover (well, she was billed as country and country radio played her) back to AC (the softer hits like "You're Still the One," at least) AND non-rhythmic CHR.
 
CTListener said:
The late '90s brought Shania Twain, who brought country crossover (well, she was billed as country and country radio played her) back to AC (the softer hits like "You're Still the One," at least) AND non-rhythmic CHR.
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The thing Shania did was different mixes for country and AC. That was something Taylor Swift also did when she crossed over.

"You're Still The One" had two different solos: Country was steel guitar, and the AC was wah-wah guitar. "From This Moment On" was a duet with Bryan White. The pop version didn't have Bryan. Kenny Rogers didn't do different mixes. Neither did Crystal Gayle or Ronnie Milsap.
 
Another artist who hit both country and AC in the late 90s was Faith Hill. I even remember hearing "This Kiss" on a CHR/POP station.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Another artist who hit both country and AC in the late 90s was Faith Hill. I even remember hearing "This Kiss" on a CHR/POP station.
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This Kiss, Breathe, The Way You Love Me, Where Are You Christmas, There You'll Be, and Cry all were both country and AC. She also released several songs during this time strictly for one or the other format.
 
TheBigA said:
The thing Shania did was different mixes for country and AC. That was something Taylor Swift also did when she crossed over.

"You're Still The One" had two different solos: Country was steel guitar, and the AC was wah-wah guitar. "From This Moment On" was a duet with Bryan White. The pop version didn't have Bryan. Kenny Rogers didn't do different mixes. Neither did Crystal Gayle or Ronnie Milsap.
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The songs they sent to AC in the '70s and '80s didn't need remixing. There was no pedal steel or fiddle in "Lady" or "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" or "It Was Almost Like a Song." The "countrypolitan" sound started by Chet Atkins in the '60s had legs!
 
CTListener said:
The songs they sent to AC in the '70s and '80s didn't need remixing. There was no pedal steel or fiddle in "Lady" or "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" or "It Was Almost Like a Song." The "countrypolitan" sound started by Chet Atkins in the '60s had legs!
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Some of this is why artists like Rogers and Milsap took so long to get into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Some questioned their country qualifications. Yet at the same time, artists like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee, Elvis Presley, and Chet himself were members of both the Country AND Rock Halls of Fame.
 
CTListener said:
Until the mid-'80s, you could also hear country artists such as Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap, Eddie Rabbitt and Alabama on AC radio. Country-to-pop crossovers pretty much disappeared during the height of MTV's influence on pop radio -- stations ignored T.G. Sheppard and Sawyer Brown, who had country hits in the mid-80s that would have fit right in on AC 10 years earlier, and played soft new pop like Spandau Ballet and Simply Red instead. Of course, country was changing as well, and by the late '90s the New Traditionalist phenomenon was in full swing. Clint Black, Randy Travis, Patty Loveless and Reba McEntire were far too twangy for an AC station that was playing Boyz II Men to even consider adding.
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I don't ever remember Alabama being played on AC but I see they had five top ten songs on that chart. Starting in 1980, on the Country chart, they had 21 straight #1s, followed by a #7 showing, followed by six straight #1s, followed by a #3 showing, followed by three more #1s. They then spent two years in the top five, topping the chart twice again and remained a strong performer for the rest of the century.
 
semoochie said:
I don't ever remember Alabama being played on AC but I see they had five top ten songs on that chart. Starting in 1980, on the Country chart, they had 21 straight #1s, followed by a #7 showing, followed by six straight #1s, followed by a #3 showing, followed by three more #1s. They then spent two years in the top five, topping the chart twice again and remained a strong performer for the rest of the century.
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I remember "Take Me Down" getting AC airplay here. I think "Love in the First Degree" made it, too. I don't recall any others.
 
Isn't this thread supposed to be about Kenny Rogers?
Please start new thread about other Artists.

Thankew,
Frank
 
frankberry said:
Isn't this thread supposed to be about Kenny Rogers?
Please start new thread about other Artists.

Thankew,
Frank
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That's very good! The thread is about Kenny Rogers getting airplay on AC and Adult Standards stations. By extension, any Country act doing so seems to be within "the spirit of the thread" for at least a couple of responses, as long as we quickly return to the main topic.
 
Sheryl Crow had some successful crossover to AC as well, I believe. Some of her successful AC crossovers were "If It Makes You Happy", "All I Wanna Do", "Strong Enough", "Soak Up The Sun", "The First Cut Is The Deepest", etc.

Kenny Rogers' songs including "Lady" and "Through The Years" were very successful AC crossovers. I was wondering how well did "The Gambler" and "Coward Of The County" do on AC since it has more of a country-tempo to it?

Most AC phased-out 70s in the early half of this decade. I believe AC was heavy on 70s and 80s in the 90s. Does anybody know when was the last time they had heard any Kenny Rogers song on Soft AC or Mainstream AC? Perhaps during the mid 90s?
 
WeNeverKnew said:
The two duets noted would have been gone by the early 1990s.
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Ironically, so were the rest of Kenny's songs on the hit country stations.

It was around that time that Barbara Mandrell retired. Good thing she did, because her career was over.
 
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