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Kenneth Ray \"Kenny\" Rogers (born August 21, 1938) is an American country music singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor and entrepreneur. He has charted more than 70 hit singles across various music genres and topping the country and pop album charts for more than 442 individual weeks in the United States alone./nTwo of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About.com poll of \"The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever\". He was voted the \"Favorite Singer of All-Time\" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.He has received hundreds of awards for both his music and charity work. These include AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003./nLater success includes the 2006 album release, Water & Bridges, an across the board hit, that peaked at #5 in the Billboard Country Albums sales charts, also charting high in the Billboard 200. The first single from the album, \"I Can\'t Unlove You,\" was also a chart hit. Remaining a popular entertainer around the world, the following year he completed a tour of the United Kingdom and the Ireland telling BBC Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright, his favorite hit was \"The Gambler\". He has also acted in a variety of movies and television shows, most notably the title roles in Kenny Rogers as The Gambler and the MacShayne series as well as his appearance on the Muppet Show. As of 2009, Rogers lives in Nicholson, Georgia./nRogers was born in Houston, Texas, the fourth of seven children born to Lucille (née Hester), a nurse, and Edward Floyd Rogers, a carpenter. Rogers graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in Houston. According to the Texas birth records, his middle given name is Ray and he is sometimes credited in his film roles as \"Kenneth Ray Rogers\"./nHe has been married five times. His fourth wife was the actress Marianne Gordon Rogers. His current wife is the former Wanda Miller. He has a daughter and four sons./nAs of 2005, Rogers has become an avid Atlanta Thrashers fan, and can often be seen at Philips Arena taking in a game. Career Early career/nHis career began in the mid-1950s, when he recorded with a doo-wop group called The Scholars who had some success with a single called \"Poor Little Doggie\". Rogers was not the lead singer of the group and after two more singles they disbanded when their leader went solo./nNow on his own, Kenneth Rogers (as he was billed then) followed the break up with his own single, a minor solo hit called \"That Crazy Feeling\" (1958). After sales slowed down, Rogers joined a jazz group called The Bobby Doyle Trio, who got a lot of work in clubs thanks to a reasonable fan following and also recorded for Columbia Records. The group disbanded in 1965, and a 1966 jazzy rock single Rogers recorded for Mercury Records, called \"Here\'s That Rainy Day\" failed. Rogers also worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers; including country artists Mickey Gilley and Eddy Arnold. In 1966 he joined the New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player./nFeeling that the Minstrels were not offering the success they wanted, Rogers and fellow members Mike Settle, Terry Williams and Thelma Camacho left the group. They formed The First Edition in 1967 (later renamed \"Kenny Rogers and The First Edition\"). They chalked up a string of hits on both the pop and country charts, including \"Something\'s Burning\", \"Ruby, Don\'t Take Your Love To Town\", \"Reuben James\" and \"Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).\" In his First Edition days, Rogers had something of a hippie image, with long brown hair, an earring, and pink sunglasses. Known affectionately in retrospect as \"Hippie Kenny\", Rogers had a much smoother vocal style than in his later career./nWhen the group split in 1976, Rogers launched his solo career. Rogers soon developed a more middle of the road sound, with a somewhat rough but tuneful voiced style that sold to both pop and country audiences; to date, he has charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles (including upwards of 25 #1\'s) and 50 of his albums have charted. His music has also been featured in top selling movie soundtracks, such as Convoy, Urban Cowboy and The Big Lebowski. Solo career/nAfter leaving The First Edition in 1976, after almost a decade with the group, Rogers signed a solo deal with United Artists. Although producer Larry Butler had no doubts about Rogers\'s talent, he was advised by several colleagues not to sign Rogers, who some saw as a has-been. Nevertheless, Butler and Rogers began a partnership that would last four years./nRogers first outing for his new label was Love Lifted Me. The album charted and two singles \"Love Lifted Me\" and \"While The Feeling\'s Good\" were minor hits. The song \"Runaway Girl\" was featured in the motion picture Trackdown. Later in 1976, Rogers issued his second album, the self-titled Kenny Rogers, whose first single \"Laura (What\'s He Got That I Ain\'t Got)\", was another solo hit./nHowever, the single \"Lucille\" (1977) was a major hit, reaching number one on the pop charts in 12 countries, selling over five million copies, and firmly establishing Rogers\'s post-First Edition career. On the strength of \"Lucille\", the album Kenny Rogers reached #1 in the Billboard Country Album Chart. More success was to follow, including the multi-million selling album The Gambler and another international Number 1 single, \"Coward of the County\", taken from the equally successful album, Kenny. In 1980, the Rogers/Butler partnership came to an end, though they would occasionally reunite: in 1987 on the album I Prefer The Moonlight and again in 1993 on the album If Only My Heart Had A Voice./nIn the late 1970s Rogers teamed up with close friend and country singer Dottie West for a series of albums and duets. Together the duo had three hit albums, selling out stadiums and arenas while on tour. Their hits together \"Every Time Two Fools Collide\", \"Anyone Who Isn\'t Me Tonight\" and \"What Are We Doin\' in Love\" became Country standards. Of West, Rogers stated in a 1995 TNN interview \"She, more than anybody else I ever worked with sang with such emotion that you actually believed what she sang.\" Rogers was with West when she died after sustaining injuries in a 1991 car accident. In 1995 he starred opposite Michele Lee in the CBS biopic Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story./nIn 1980 his duet with Kim Carnes \"Don\'t Fall in Love with a Dreamer\" became a major hit. Later in 1980 came his partnership with Lionel Richie who wrote and produced Rogers\'s #1 hit \"Lady\". Richie went on to write and produce Rogers\'s 1981 album Share Your Love, a chart topper and commercial favorite featuring hits such as \"I Don\'t Need You\" (Pop #3), \"Through the Years\" (Pop #13), and \"Share Your Love with Me\" (Pop #14). In 1982, Rogers released the album Love Will Turn You Around. The title track reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the country and AC charts. Shortly after he started working with producer David Foster in 1983 recording the smash Bob Seger cover \"We\'ve Got Tonight\", a duet with Sheena Easton./nHe went on to work with the Bee Gees to record and produce his 1983 hit album Eyes That See in the Dark, featuring the title track and yet another #1 hit \"Islands in the Stream,\" a duet with Dolly Parton. The Bee Gees had originally written the song for Diana Ross. The partnership with Bee Gees only lasted one album, which was not a surprise considering that Rogers\'s original intentions were to work with Barry Gibb in only one song but Barry insisted on them doing the entire album./n\"Islands in the Stream\", the first single to be released from Eyes That See in the Dark in the United States, quickly went to #1 in the Billboard Hot 100. It was the last country single to reach #1 on that chart until \"Amazed\" by Lonestar did so in 2000. However, RCA insisted on releasing the title track as the first UK single, and the song stalled at a disappointing #61 there, although it did stay in the top 100 for several weeks (when it was eventually released in the US, it was more successful, charting high on the Adult Contemporary chart and making the country top 30). \"Islands in the Stream\" was issued as a follow up single in Britain and sold well, making #7. The album itself reached #1 on the country charts on both sides of the Atlantic and enjoyed multi-million sales. \"Buried Treasure,\" \"This Woman\" and \"Evening Star\"/\"Midsummer Nights\" were also all successful singles from the album./nShortly afterwards came the album What About Me?, a hit whose title track, a trio performance featuring Rogers, James Ingram and Kim Carnes, was also a hit. The song was an across the board hit and was nominated for a Grammy award; the single \"Crazy\" (not to be confused with the Willie Nelson-penned Patsy Cline hit) topped the country charts. David Foster was to work again with Rogers in his 1985 album The Heart of the Matter, although this time Foster was playing backing music rather than producing, a role given to George Martin. This album was another success, going to #1, with the title track making to the top ten category in the singles charts./nThe next few years saw Rogers scoring several top country hits on a regular basis, including \"Twenty Years Ago,\" \"Morning Desire,\" \"Tomb of the Unknown Love,\" among others. On 28 January 1985 Rogers was one of the 45 artists who recorded the worldwide charity song \"We Are the World\" to support hunger victims in Africa. The following year he played at Giants Stadium./nOn January 1987, Rogers co-hosted the American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. By 1988 to 1990, Rogers had reached the pinnacle of his career and new artists like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson were emerging at a rapid clip. During that time, he released some albums but, while he still made the top 20, he was no longer the chart topper he had been previously. Worldwide success/nHis success is worldwide. He has played many well-attended concerts in Europe and the Far East, where he has charted numerous singles and albums from the 1970s through to the present day. New Zealand was a big stronghold during his First Edition days. Rogers 1985 greatest-hits package, The Kenny Rogers Story, reached #1 on the UK country chart and four years later (in 1989), was still at #2. He also charted internationally during that time with a series of studio albums./nIn 1983, Rogers signed to RCA for a record breaking US$20 million advance. Although, following the success of his label debut, the Bee Gees produced Eyes That See in the Dark album, Rogers wasn\'t doing as well as in previous years. Nonetheless, he was still among the world\'s top stars. Between 1983 and 1990 alone he charted no less than 23 top 40 singles and 10 top 40 albums./nAlthough in the 1990s with the emergence of Garth Brooks, it was noted that this new talent was selling records like no one else had ever in country music, Rogers was nonetheless a dominant force in mainstream music and at his height, was charting singles (and albums) which were racing up the top 40 on the pop charts around the world, songs like \"Lucille\", \"Coward of the County\", \"The Gambler\" and \"Lady\" became favorites and have remained such, making Rogers one of the most popular entertainers on the touring circuit./nIn India he was known as \'The Whistler\'

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