![]() As well, he was working on material like “Love Will Turn You Around,” a single that also doubled as a song from Rogers’ mainstream film debut in race-car driver action-romance film Six Pack, which earned more than $20 million at the United States box office. Impressively, the film met with critical acclaim, spawning a 30-year television and film acting career.īy the end of 1981, Rogers released a Christmas album that reached the top 10 on the country charts. Rogers starred in the Dick Lowry-directed film as Reverend Matthew Spencer, the fire and brimstone preacher uncle of the song’s eventually heroic protagonist Tommy Spencer. On the film front, Rogers saw yet another one of his hit singles - this time, 1979’s “Coward of the County” - be adapted to film for CBS. ![]() In the liner notes of his 2006-released compilation album The Number One Hits, the legendary country artist referred to the album as “one of favorite albums of his career containing many of favorite songs ever recorded. Multiplying “Lady”’s success - a goal of their pairing - occurred as nine million albums sold later, songs including “I Don’t Need You” (Billboard Hot 100 peak at #3), “Through the Years” (Billboard Hot 100 peak at #13), and “Share Your Love with Me” (Billboard Hot 100 peak at #14) are amongst Rogers’ canon of classics. Within six hours, more than 6,700 of the available 8,722 tickets had been sold for the premium price then of $13 and $15.” Adjusted for modern-day inflation, those are first-day ticket sales of nearly $300,000.Īs well, 1981 saw Rogers work, in full with Lionel Richie, on Share Your Love, his 11th studio album. the only way to buy concert tickets were by phone or in person. There never was any question about it.” To wit, the same article also notes that “hopeful ticket buyers with raised umbrellas patiently waiting in heavy rain for the box office to open at 8 a.m. Regarding one of this tour’s events in Augusta, GA, then Augusta-Richmond Civic Center, Larry Rogers commented to the Augusta Chronicle upon Rogers’ 2020 passing, “When you get somebody of the caliber of Kenny Rogers, you’re going to sell out. The film also spawned a franchise, four sequels having been filmed over the course of the following 15 years.Īs far as his touring schedule, Rogers had an arena tour scheduled in early 1981, capitalizing off “Lady”’s gold-selling success and his visibility via The Gambler. A year prior, in 1980, Rogers starred in a CBS film adaptation of his 1978 Grammy-winning hit “The Gambler.” The film was a big rating success, and according to Grelun Landon and Irwin Stambler’s Country Music: The Encyclopedia, received the Eddie Award for Best Edited Television Special, as well as two Emmy nominations: Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Special and Outstanding Film Editing for a Limited Series or a Special. This, the same CBS that in the early 1970s had debuted long-running hillbilly lampooning laugh-in Hee Haw, and by 1978 had started airing the wildly popular prime time soap opera Dallas. By 1981, he’d started acting in films for CBS. In 1973, Rogers had already - at the end of his time working with The First Edition - had branched into acting in made-for-TV films. This crossover achievement was important. Later, as Rogers’ recording, it reached number-one on Billboard’s Hot 100, Hot Country, and Adult Contemporary charts - it became the biggest selling hit single for him as a solo artist. Lionel Richie had originally pitched this song to the Commodores and they turned it down. ![]() The chart-topping Blending Rogers’ forever desire to mimic classic soul artists like Sam Cooke with piano-driven pop very much aimed at the “Yacht Rock” fanaticism of the era, plus some strong songwriting chops from the tandem. However, in 1981, he became America’s most bankable and beloved pop superstar because of an impressive blend of moments where the artist at one time known as “Hippie Kenny” struck while the iron was hot on multiple levels.įoremost, leading into 1981, Rogers had worked with former Commodores lead singer Lionel Richie on 1980 mega-hit “Lady,” a bonus track on his all-country Greatest Hits album. Thus, Rogers, by the end of the year, being a pop icon, seems highly unlikely on paper. However, in 1981, Kenny Rogers was a prematurely white-haired 43-year old country star who, in that genre, was already a 20-year veteran and well-entrenched as a chart-topping country icon. Make a hit, reach number one, and from there, the television programs, action figures, and trappings of crossover acclaim appear in short order. Typically, for mainstream pop stars, the road to extraordinary excellence is rather quick.
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