‘The Gambler’
‘The Gambler’
A Reason To Smile
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The late, great country singer Kenny Rogers’s biggest hit was, without question, “The Gambler,” a staple of karaoke bars and long road trips. It was released 47 years ago this week and is our reason to smile. Who can resist his dulcet voice telling the story of a dying gambler passing on his hard-won wisdom? But it was almost a hit for someone else.
Rogers and Johnny Cash recorded the song on the same day in 1978. But it was Rogers’s version that went to No. 1 on the country charts and earned him a Grammy Award. When I interviewed Rogers several years ago, he explained his theory as to why.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with talent. I think I may have had a stronger record company, or they needed to get a hit with me to pay for my sessions. But I think it was timely, and I think I believed in the song,” Rogers told me.
He also told me about an irony surrounding “The Gambler.” The most famous song about gambling was written by Don Schlitz, a young songwriter who knew nothing about gambling. “It’s really not about gambling. It’s a philosophy of life to him, of knowing when to get into something, when to get out of it, and when to stay completely away from it,” Rogers said.
I was an early Kenny Rogers fan, seeing him perform in the late ‘50s at small clubs around Houston, his hometown. Sometimes there were maybe eight people in the audience, four of them sober. Even then, even there, it was obvious, at least to me, that he was going to make it big.
If you want to enjoy all the songs chosen for A Reason To Smile, you can listen to this Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly.
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Stay Steady,
Dan
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