"Kentucky Gambler" | ||||
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Single by Merle Haggard | ||||
from the album Keep Movin' On | ||||
B-side | "You'll Always Be Special" | |||
Released | October 1974 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Label | Capitol | |||
Writer(s) | Dolly Parton | |||
Producer | Ken Nelson Fuzzy Owen |
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Merle Haggard singles chronology | ||||
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"Kentucky Gambler" is a 1974 song written and performed by Dolly Parton. "Kentucky Gambler" was issued as a track from Dolly Parton's, The Bargain Store album from 1975. That same year, Merle Haggard, covered "Kentucky Gambler" where it became his nineteenth number one song on the country chart. (Coincidentally, Parton's The Bargain Store album featured a cover of a Haggard composition, "You'll Always Be Special to Me".) The Merle Haggard version stayed at number one for a single week and spent a total of eleven weeks on the chart.[1]
A classic Dolly Parton story song, "Kentucky Gambler" tells the story of a miner from Kentucky who abandons his wife and children for the bright lights of Reno, where he initially does very well at gambling, "winning at everything he played". Eventually, however, his winning streak comes to a halt, as he loses all of his winnings and then, broke, he returns home, only to find that his wife has found someone else and has moved on without him, and concludes that "a gambler loses much more than he wins".
Chart (1974-1975) | Peak position |
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U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 1 |
Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1 |
Preceded by "Ruby Baby" by Billy "Crash" Craddock |
Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single January 18, 1975 |
Succeeded by "(I'd Be) A Legend in My Time" by Ronnie Milsap |
Preceded by "Big Red Jimmy" by Jerry Warren |
RPM Country Tracks number-one single February 8, 1975 |