With the First Edition

Kenny Rogers had been in the music business since the mid-fifties but his first taste of success came in the late sixties. After a spell in the New Christy Minstrels, he and three other members left to form the Fist Edition, with Kenny as the lead singer. They made several notable recordings in the late sixties and early seventies, the best of which are featured here.



Kenny's biggest hit during this period, Ruby don't take your love to town, rightly opens this collection. Originally written and recorded by Mel Tillis, this song had already been covered by several other singers including Roger Miller. Written about a Korean War veteran, the crazy Asian war referred to in the lyrics could equally be interpreted as Vietnam. With that war raging at the time, Kenny and the First Edition had an American top ten hit with it. Perhaps more surprising (since Britain did not join in the Vietnam War), the song spent several weeks at number two in the UK charts, only prevented from being number one by Two little boys (Rolf Harris), another song about war.



Kenny and the group had another UK top ten hit with Something's burning (which just missed the American top ten) but none of their other records charted in Britain. In America, they had several other hits including Just dropped in (their very first hit), But you know I love you (later covered by Dolly Parton, who took it to the top of the country charts in the early eighties), Reuben James, Heed the call and Tell it all brother.



This compilation includes all those hits and other notable recordings including Elvira, a song that eventually became a huge American hit for the Oak Ridge Boys over a decade later. After the First Edition faded into obscurity and disbanded, Kenny's career seemed to be over but he re-remerged as a solo singer and became more successful than ever before. Those recordings are beyond the scope of this collection.



There are many compilations of Kenny's music with the First Edition, but this contains all the essentials.