Rogers also worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers including country artists Mickey Gilley and Eddy Arnold. The group disbanded in 1965, and a 1966 jazzy rock single Rogers recorded for Mercury Records, called “Here’s That Rainy Day” failed. 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. Now on his own, Kenneth Rogers (as he was billed then) followed the breakup with his own single, a minor solo hit called “That Crazy Feeling” (1958). Rogers was not the lead singer of the group and after two more singles they disbanded when their leader went solo. His 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 graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in Houston. 1991), a nurse, and Edward Floyd Rogers (d. Rogers was born in Houston, Texas, in 1938, the fourth of seven children born to Lucille (née Hester d.
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. 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”. The first single from the album, “I Can’t Unlove You,” was also a chart hit. Later 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. He has received such awards as the AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003.
He was voted the “Favorite Singer of All-Time” in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.
Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the poll of “The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever”. Though he has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres and topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone.