Kenny Rogers

He was nearly forty before the career anyone remembers started. Born in a Houston housing project in 1938, one of eight children, Kenneth Donald Ray Rogers formed a doo-wop group called the Scholars in high school in 1956 and never stopped working. He played stand-up bass in a jazz trio, sang folk with the New Christy Minstrels, and in 1967 formed the First Edition, which put eleven singles on the Billboard charts including the psychedelic Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) and Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town. He went solo in 1976, and Lucille arrived the following year.

What followed was one of the largest crossover careers in American music: 39 studio albums, 80 singles, 24 country No. 1s, more than 120 charting singles across four genres, and over 100 million records sold. Every album he released between 1976 and 1984 went gold or platinum. The Gambler and Coward of the County became television films with him in them. Lady, written and produced by Lionel Richie, held the top of the pop chart for six weeks, and Islands in the Stream with Dolly Parton became the defining country duet of its decade. He opened a chicken restaurant chain in 1991, played Glastonbury's Legends slot in 2013, and entered the Country Music Hall of Fame the same year. His final concert was in Nashville in 2017, with Parton alongside him. He died on March 20, 2020.