Islands in the Stream

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This article is about the song. For the posthumously published novel by Ernest Hemingway, see Islands in the Stream (Hemingway).

“Islands in the Stream”

Single by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton
from the album Eyes That See in the Dark

Released

August 1983 (U.S.)

Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton singles chronology

"Islands in the Stream"
(1983)

"Real Love"
(1985)

"Islands in the Stream" was a 1983 hit country music single for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, written by the Bee Gees (whose vocals also appear on the record). It was the first single from Rogers' album Eyes That See in the Dark and the second pop number-one for both Rogers and Parton (Rogers having been there with 1980's "Lady" and Parton with 1981's "9 to 5"). They went on to record a Christmas album together, and had an additional country hit with their 1985 duet "Real Love". The Gibb Brothers had originally written the song for Diana Ross^[^{citation needed]}.

Its two weeks as Billboard Hot 100 number-one were preceded by "Total Eclipse of the Heart," performed by Bonnie Tyler, and followed by "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie. It also spent two weeks as the number one country song and in the year's final countdown was the number one song of the entire year of 1983.

In Australia, the song was number one for ten weeks, becoming one of the highest selling singles of the year.

In 2005, the song topped CMT's poll of the best country duets of all time; Parton and Rogers reunited to perform the song on the CMT special (which featured a countdown of the songs on the poll).

In April of 2008, South Bend, Indiana radio station WZOW-FM played the song continuously for several days on end.^[1] This was more or less a gimmick used to draw attention to the station's format change from alternative rock to adult contemporary.

1 Cover versions
2 Succession
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Cover versions

The Bee Gees performed the song on their concert album One Night Only.

Swedish pop and country singer Kikki Danielsson covered the song on her 1983 album "Singles Bar", with lyrics in Swedish by Ingela "Pling" Forsman as "Öar i ett hav" ("Islands in a sea").

The song was sampled on Pras Michel's 1998 hit song "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)".

In 1999, a Catalan singer, Tomeu Penya, covered "islands in a stream" and included it in his "Antalogia" Album. He sang it in Mallorquin, a dialect from the Catalan Language. The title of the song is "Illes dins un riu". It is now a very popular song and very well known by all Catalan people. The song is a perfect metaphor of the meaning of the balearic islands in the mediterranean sea.

In 2001, the Bee Gees released their own version of the song on a greatest hits compilation. Robin Gibb performed lead vocals on the track, which included (part of) the chorus from "Ghetto Supastar".

The song has also been covered by Bertine Zetlitz (featuring Thom Hell) on an "open disc" to her 2006 album "My Italian Greyhound".

The song was covered in 2006 on Australian TV show Rockwiz, performed by Ella Hooper of Killing Heidi and Troy Cassar-Daley.

Michael Scott, a fictional character in the US Television Series The Office, performs a karaoke version of the song in the episode "E-mail Surveillance".

A cover version of the song was recorded in 2006 by the UK Tabloid favourite couple, Katie Price and Peter Andre. The track is included on their album of Duets "A whole new world".

Parton appeared on an episode of Bette, Bette Midler's series where they sang a repeatedly interrupted duet of the song.

Kenny Rogers performed the song as a duet with Carrie Underwood at Dolly's Kennedy Centre Honours Ceremony.

The Constantines released a version of the song, featuring Feist, on a 2008 seven inch released on Arts and Crafts Records it can be found here

There is an episode of the popular Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation named after this song. The show is known for naming most of their episodes after hit songs of the 1980's.

British comedy show Gavin & Stacey featured the song in episode five of their second season, with character Bryn and Nessa singing it as a duet at a barn dance themed birthday party. There are rumours that the two actors portraying the characters of Bryn and Nessa will release the song as a christmas single in 2008.

[edit] Succession

Preceded by "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler	Billboard Hot 100 number one single October 29-November 5, 1983 by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton	Succeeded by "All Night Long (All Night)" by Lionel Richie
Preceded by "Lady Down on Love" by Alabama	Billboard Hot Country Singles number one single October 29-November 5, 1983 by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton	Succeeded by "Somebody's Gonna Love You" by Lee Greenwood
Preceded by "Always on My Mind" by Willie Nelson	Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single of the year 1983	Succeeded by "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" by Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson