Greatest Hits (Kenny Rogers album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits
Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits cover
Compilation album by Kenny Rogers
Released 1980
Label Liberty records
Professional reviews

Greatest Hits (sometimes referred to as Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits) is a 1980 compilation album issued by Liberty records of hit singles by the country music superstar Kenny Rogers.

[edit] History

The album reached Number One on both the Pop and Country charts in the United States of America and featured three singles that were not included on any of Rogers' studio albums - these being "Lady" (written and produced specifically for Rogers by Lionel Richie, which was a #1 hit single in the same year), "Love The World Away" (a top 5 country and top 20 pop hit that was featured on the soundtrack of the box-office smash Urban Cowboy) and "Long Arm of the Law" (a lesser known, but still relatively popular song among Rogers loyal fan base).

The album features a further nine hit singles from Rogers' career, hence missing out on a number of others (notable omissions including "Daytime Friends", "Sweet Music Man" and "Love Or Something Like It") but didn't stop the album from being a huge success and confirmed Rogers' status as one of the world's biggest stars, going on to sell more than 22 million copies world wide. In country music today it remains the best selling compilation release of all-time, beating out Garth Brooks' 1994 limited-time-availability release The Hits.

This collection was the first album by Rogers to be issued on Liberty Records; prior to this all his LPs had been under the United Artists Records name. Its' issue occurred just after the two labels merged.

In the United Kingdom the album was sold with the same artwork under the title Lady but differed slightly in the track listing, omitting "Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town" and "Reuben James" in favor of "Goodbye Marie" and "Sail Away" (this was probably done to make it less similar to the already issued set The Kenny Rogers Singles Album, which at the time was still selling well in the UK).

As it happens, this is not the only Kenny Rogers album to be called Greatest Hits. In 1971, while with The First Edition, an album under that title was released. Since 1980 many other collections by Rogers have been called Greatest Hits, such as a 1985 Readers Digest box set and the 1988 collection of his RCA material. However, this 1980 collection on Liberty was the first solo offering by Rogers to be given this designation.

In 1983, when Rogers changed labels to RCA Records, Liberty quickly issued 20 Greatest Hits, a more complete overall look at Rogers hit list. However, both albums remained in catalog side by side for over two decades. Greatest Hits was eventually deleted in 2004 after Rogers' 42 Ultimate Hits was released.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "The Gambler"
  2. "Lady"
  3. "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" (Vocal duet with Kim Carnes)
  4. "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town"
  5. "She Believes in Me"
  6. "Coward of the County"
  7. "Lucille"
  8. "You Decorated My Life"
  9. "Reuben James"
  10. "Love the World Away"
  11. "Everytime Two Fools Collide" (Vocal duet with Dottie West)
  12. "Long Arm of the Law"

[edit] See also

Preceded by
Guilty by Barbra Streisand		 Billboard 200 number-one album
December 13 - December 26, 1980		 Succeeded by
Double Fantasy by John Lennon and Yoko Ono