YMMV / Kenny Rogers

• Awesome Music: Several of his songs. One lesser-known single that's a fan favorite is "Sweet Music Man".
• Covered Up:
  • "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" was written by Mel Tillis and first released by Johnny Darrell.
  • His second Top 40 hit was "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)", which was previously a #1 by Leon Ashley, a singer who'd fallen into obscurity by that point.
  • Don Schlitz released his own version of "The Gambler" shortly before Kenny did.
  • His 1988 single "I Don't Call Him Daddy" only got to #86. Five years later, Doug Supernaw took a cover of the song to #1.
  • Bob Seger was the first artist to release "We've Got Tonight".
  • Many of his hits were Cover Versions of songs first recorded by little-known singer-songwriters. Besides "The Gambler" there was "She Believes in Me" (Steve Gibb), "You Decorated My Life" (Bob Morrison) and "I Don't Need You" (Rick Christian).
  • The First Edition's "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", written by Country Music songwriting great Mickey Newbury, was first released by Jerry Lee Lewis, of all people.
  • "Through the Years" was first released as an album cut by R&B singer Stevie Woods a few months before the Rogers version came out.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: "The Gambler" is this in a bittersweet kind of way. It contains the line "And the best you can hope for is to die in your sleep", and when Rogers eventually passed away in March 2020, it was indeed in his sleep.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • His mother was named Lucille, which later became the title of his Breakout Hit.
  • He crooned the line "I don't need children in my old age" in "I Don't Need You". A couple decades later he fathered twin sons at age 66, and lived to their teens.
• Narm Charm: "The Gambler" is extremely cheesey, but that's what makes it enjoyable.
• Sampled Up: The chorus of "Islands in the Stream" is perhaps better recognized today as the hook for "Ghetto Superstar" by Pras Michel ft. Ol' Dirty Bastard & Mya, the theme for the 1998 movie Bulworth.
• Signature Song: "The Gambler."
• The Woobie: Tommy from Coward of the County, until He becomes a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
• Tear Jerker: "The Last Ten Years (Superman)" (released in 2008) is a more bittersweet take on a nostalgia song that also pays tribute those we've lost and the victims of tragedy. Christopher Reeve is mentioned prominently and always referred to as Superman until the fade-out when Kenny says 'gonna miss you, Chris"
• Unintentional Period Piece: "The Last Ten Years (Superman)" name-drops a ton of celebrities who died in approximately the decade prior to the song's 2006 release (such names ranging from Dr. Seuss to Johnny Cash to Christopher Reeve), as well as several pop-culture keystones from the Turn of the Millennium (such as the dot-com boom and hybrid cars).