( * and the First Edition )
Chart entered : 18 October 1969
Chart peak : 2
Number of hits : 10
The last newcomer of the sixties was this guy whose 10, well spread out, hits here were on 5 different labels. Kenny was always a much bigger deal in his homeland and he's a convenient herald for a period when the American and British charts largely went their separate ways until circa 1982. When I first started listening to Radio One in 1973 it was quite schizophrenic with a number of the DJs ( Noel Edmunds, David Hamilton and Rosko ) clearly preferring to play stuff from the American charts rather than our own.
Kenny was born in Houston in 1938. Kenny's career too begins in the fifties when he was the bass player in a rockabilly group called The Scholars. In 1956 they got a local record deal and in July put out the raw doo wop single "Spin The Wheel" on Cue Records. They then changed labels to Dot who re-released it in September. I haven't heard their second one "Poor Little Doggie" . By June 1957 they had switched to Imperial for the relatively polished Comets-ish rock n roll of "I Didn't Want To Do It" then it was back to doo wop for "Eternally Yours" in October. The group disbanded at the end of the year.
Kenneth Rogers tried for solo success in February 1958 with "That Crazy Feeling" which sounds like a poor imitation of The Platters doing The Great Pretender. Kenny's young voice is nothing like the old man's wheeze on the hits but it's not that impressive either, sounding a bit strained. His second, strangely released under the banner "Kenny Rogers The First" , "For You Alone" is more of the same except that Kenny wrote it himself. Kenny's next single on Pearl Records had to be released incognito as Lee Harrison -and sung an uncomfortable ocatave deeper - because he was still contracted to Carlton. It's dreadful.
Kenny then disappeared into a jazz trio the Bobby Doyle Trio ( later Three ) as the bass player though he also wrote and played for other singers. He's on their 1962 album "In A Most Unusual Way " and they made one single "Don't Feel Rained On" which Kenny's brother Lelan produced in 1964. They split up in 1965 and Kenny tried again with a solo single "Here's That Rainy Day" in 1966 which I haven't heard.
In 1966-67 he had a brief stay in the New Christy Minstrels , an amorphous folk collective that had already launched Barry McGuire and Gene Clark and he made up an illustrious trio of newcomers with Kim Carnes and soon-to-be-famous actress Karen Black. However he didn't stay very long and from what I can make out he's not on any of their records.
Kenny left the Minstrels in company with guitarists Mike Settle and Terry Williams and vocalist Thelma Camacho. They added drummer Mickey Jones and created a new band , the First Edition. Williams's mother had industry connections and soon got them a deal with Reprise. Their first single was Mike Settle's "I Found A Reason" in October 1967. Settle did the rough hewn lead vocal on this brash pop number with Beatles- aping brass which was produced by Mike Post, later to become the master of the low key TV theme tune. It wasn't a hit .
Kenny took the lead vocal on the next one , the psychedelic classic "Just Dropped In ( To See What Condition My Condition Was In ) . It was written by Mickey Newberry as a warning against LSD by describing its effects and first recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis who then decided he didn't like it. The First Edition's version has a backwards guitar intro and proto-metal solo both courtesy of Glen Campbell and the music sounds like a Zombies / Who cross over in a good way. Kenny's vulnerable vocal - more recognisable now as him - is another plus giving the sense of a man into something over his head. After they appeared on the Smothers Brothers show with Kenny reclining on an outsize blue bed it reached number 5 in the US charts early in 1968.
Unfortunately the band seemed to take fright at their own record and the follow-up "Only Me" is a tame jaunty pop number in the style of the Turtles. It wasn't a hit. The interesting-sounding "Charlie the Fer' De Lance" and another Mickey Newbury song, "Are My Thoughts With You ?" were their next two singles but I haven't heard them and they didn't chart. They got back on track commercially with Settle's song "But You Know I Love You" which got to number 19 but it's a disappointing song about having to go on the road and sounds like the New Seekers. The flop follow-up "Once Again She's All Alone" sounds like a sequel both musically and lyrically and is easily forgettable.
Probably the major reason why it flopped was a sudden demand for the last track on their previous LP to be released as a single following brief exposure on a TV documentary. Previously the media had avoided that reference to "this crazy Asian war" in Mel Tillis's song like the plague but now "Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town" was the hottest thing in town. Someone - I don't know that it was Kenny - suggested that putting out "Ruby..." under the name "Kenny Rogers and the First Edition" would enable both records to be hits, a logic that I've never quite followed. In any case "Ruby..." buried its predecessor , reaching number 6 in the US and charting worldwide. Kenny's name stayed out front for the rest of their career.
Here's Lena's take Ruby . Seems like she likes the song more than I do.
Next : The 70s and our first boy band
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