Songoftheday 4/14/22 - He works hard to give her all he thinks she wants, a three car garage her own credit cards...

 

 

"Buy Me A Rose" - Kenny Rogers featuring Billy Dean and Alison Krauss

from the album She Rides Wild Horses (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #40 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 2

 

Today's song comes from country crossover legend Kenny Rogers, who was last seen in this series over eight years ago with this top-40 pop hit from the late fall of 1984, "What About Me?" with Kim Carnes and James Ingram.  Right at the beginning of the following year, Kenny collaborated with friend Dolly Parton on the title track to her album "Real Love", which went to #1 on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart, hit #13 on their Adult Contemporary radio list, and popped in at #91 on the Hot 100 "pop" chart. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Duo/Group Country Vocal Performance, losing out to the Judds' breakthrough single "Why Not Me". Later in 1985 Rogers returned with his next album, The Heart of the Matter, which spun off two #1 country hits with "Morning Desire" and "Tomb Of The Unknown Love", with the former a big hit on the Adult Contemporary format at #8 while making it to #72 on the Hot 100. The Heart Of The Matter album topped the Country Albums chart for six weeks, while getting to #51 on the all-genre Billboard 200 sales tally.

In 1987, Kenny got together with another veteran country singer who had a lot of pop radio success, Ronnie Milsap, for the song "Make No Mistake, She's Mine", a remake of the song recorded by Barbra Streisand and Kim Carnes. four years prior. Not only did this bring the pair back to #1 on the country chart, but it won them a Grammy (Kenny's last) for Best Country Duet. 

Kenny continued to release albums through the late 1980's and 1990's on several labels even including one for the TV shopping network QVC, but by then, country radio was only giving him a passing glance. The best he did in the 90's was "If You Want To Find Love" from his 1991 album Back Home Again, which just missed the country radio top ten at #11. And even then, the album it came from stopped short of the top-40 on the Country Albums chart at #42, leaving Reprise Records shortly afterwards. In 1998, Rogers' started up his own label, Dreamcatcher Records, releasing a holiday album Christmas From The Heart later that year.

The second album on the Dreamcatcher imprint was She Rides Wild Horses, which arrived in the spring of 1999. The lead single, "The Greatest", was a nice slice of nostalgia that brought him back to the top-40 on the country radio chart for the first time in over seven years at #26. That was followed by "Slow Dance More", which stalled down at #67 on the country chart. 

For the third release from the set, like his last top-40 pop hit from 1984, Kenny teamed up with two well-known singers, this time of the country music world. Billy Dean, who got his first big exposure appearing on the talent competition TV show Star Search, had racked up ten top ten hits through the 1990's, with one of the three reaching a high of #3, "Somewhere In My Broken Heart", also crossing over to #18 on the Adult Contemporary radio list at #18 in 1991. Meanwhile, Alison Krauss had established herself as the most successful bluegrass artist of her generation, with both her band Union Station and her own solo work. Alison's cover of Keith Whitley's "When You Say Nothing At All" went to #3 on the Country Singles chart and #53 on the pop Hot 100 in 1995. The pair sing backup on "Buy Me A Rose", but receive full feature credit on the record. Written by Jim Funk and Erik Hickenlooper, the song is a parable of love, with Kenny singing about trying to provide his wife with the best material things in life, when all she really wants is more modest but direct expressions of kindness, hence the title. Rogers as the narrator/protagonist finally gets a clue by the end of the song. It's a simple but universally understood story, and fans and Nashville finally gave Kenny the love he deserved....

Not only did "Buy Me A Rose" get Kenny back to #1 for a 20th time on Billboard's Country Singles chart, but the song climbed into to crossover "pop" top-40 for a couple weeks in May of 2000. Internationally, the song also made it to #9 on the Canadian Country chart. The She Rides Wild Horses album, released in May of 1999, eventually crested at #60 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending over a year on the chart, and #6 on the Country Albums list, going on to sell over a million copies. 

Later in 2000, Rogers returned with his next album There You Go Again. While not getting the same big reception "Buy Me A Rose" did, the set did spin off a trio of top-40 country hits, with "There You Go Again" doing the best at #26. After a fourth album in 2003 on Dreamcatcher, Back To The Well, kind of fizzled, Rogers closed shop on Dreamcatcher, and signed with a major label once again. On Capitol Nashville Records, he released Water & Bridges in 2006, which went to #14 on the Billboard 200, his highest rank there for a studio release since 1983's Barry Gibb-produced Eyes That See In The Dark. The lead single, "I Can't Unlove You", rose to #17 on the Country Singles chart, his final time in the top-40, while making it to the Hot 100 at #93, also his last time there. Another cut from the album, "Calling Me" with former Eagles member Don Henley, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, which went to rockers Bon Jovi with Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles for "Who Says You Can't Go Home". Kenny switched to Warner Brothers Nashville in 2013 for You Can't Make Old Friends. Title track "You Can't Make Old Friends", a duet again with longtime friend Dolly Parton, was his last minor country radio hit at #57. The record was nominated for a Grammy for Best Duo/Group Country Performance, which went to the alt-folk group the Civil Wars for "From This Valley". 

Rogers' last studio album was a holiday release, Once Again It's Christmas, which came out at the end of 2015. The medley of "Here It Is Christmas/Baby It's Cold Outside" with Jennifer Nettles placed them on the Adult Contemporary radio chart at #18. He retired from recording that year, and was touring for a couple of years before his health started to sadly deteriorate. Rogers passed away in 2020, but leaves a lasting legacy of his work.

(7/10)

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Here's Kenny, Alison, and Billy performing the song on an awards show..

In 2003, soul legend Luther Vandross covered "Buy Me A Rose" for his album Dance With My Father. His version climbed to #13 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart...

 

 

 

 and lastly, a stripped down version for a TV appearance in 2006...

Up tomorrow: The polar opposite of Kenny Rogers, showing his true self.