Not Fade Away

KENNY ROGERS

Country superstar (1938-2020)

KENNY Rogers’ solo career took time to gain traction. He was already in his late thirties when “Lucille”, a barroom tale of infidelity and racked conscience, was released in 1977 – two decades after his debut single. The song was a massive global hit, reaching No 1 in the UK, establishing Rogers as both a commercial country artist and master of the narrative ballad. “Once we made the story song a viable artform for me, the songs just poured in,” he wrote in his 2012 autobiography Luck Or Something Like It. “Every songwriter with a story song sent it to me.”

Rogers enjoyed a string of hits over the next few years – “The Gambler”, “She Believes In Me”, “Coward Of The County” – culminating in his first US No 1, “Lady”, in 1980. Written by Lionel Ritchie, “Lady” maximised Rogers’ crossover appeal. “The idea was that Lionel would come from R&B and I’d come from country,” he explained later, “and we’d meet somewhere in pop.” His love of vocal harmonies, gleaned