Kenny Rogers (#1 country, #3 pop, 1980)
Billy
Ed Wheeler earned a brief bit of glory as a performer in 1964 by
hitting #3 on the Billboard country chart with “Ode To The Little Brown
Shack Out Back.” Though he continued his recording career, he has been
much more successful as a songwriter. In 1963, The Kingston Trio picked
up a pop hit with Wheeler’s “Reverend Mr. Black,” in ’67 his song
“Jackson” delivered a Grammy award for Johnny Cash & June Carter and
Elvis Presley scored with “It’s Midnight,” a 1974 Top Ten record.
By
’79, Wheeler was writing with Roger Bowling, and they came up with an
interesting idea for a song which they targeted for Kenny Rogers from
the outset. The idea began during a drive along a mountain road, as
Bowling hummed a chorus he had titled “The Promise.” It was a pledge
from a son to his father with religious overtones. Wheeler felt that a
story with an underdog theme might work and he and Bowling tried to fit
that idea with “The Promise.” It proved to be a difficult task and they
wrote three different versions before they finally created a storyline
they were happy with. In fact, they continued making changes just before
Kenny Rogers recorded it for the album “Kenny.”
“Coward Of The
County” caused problems for singer Larry Gatlin, who performed with his
two brothers Steve and Rudy as “Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers.”
The song implicated three fictitious Gatlin boys in a rape sequence. “It
was really a great song,” remembers Larry, “but after it came out, we
started getting accused of being rapists. Even my mother came home one
day and said she heard a song that accused her boys of rapin’ somebody.
It kind of made me mad. I think they could have showed a little good
taste and used another name.”
None of the three major players
connected with the song (writers Wheeler and Bowling and singer Rogers)
claim to have considered the implication, but I must confess that I
instantly thought of Larry, Steve and Rudy Gatlin when I first heard
this song upon its release in late ‘79 and I’m with Larry in thinking
that they could have and should have used a different name. Especially
after it was later revealed that Larry Gatlin had once dated a girl
named Becky (the name of the girl who was violated in the song), and had
earlier written a song about her! That, of course, tied together the
already tense situation even closer.
The writers claim that other
names were considered (such as “Barlow”), but “Gatlin” was the one that
had the best-sounding ring to them and which was deemed “more gritty”
(whatever that means). Well, Larry didn’t buy that explanation and once
confronted Kenny Rogers about it on live television. Rogers exclaimed
“Don’t blame me, I didn’t write it!”
Controversy notwithstanding,
“Coward Of The County” slammed into the #1 position on Billboard’s
country singles chart on January 5, 1980, where it remained for three
weeks (Kenny’s ninth of 21 chart-toppers). The record went on to reach
#3 on Billboard’s “Hot 100” pop chart, a sensational showing for a
country release. In fact, “Coward Of The County” was Rogers’ third
highest placement on the Hot 100 behind his two number ones: “Lady”
(written and produced by Lionel Richie) and his million-selling duet
with Dolly Parton, “Islands In The Stream.”
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