from the album The Gambler
Released November 15, 1978
Format Vinyl
Genre Country
Length 3:32
Label United Artists
Writer(s) Don Schlitz
Producer Larry Butler

“The Gambler” is the title track to Kenny Rogers’ 1978 album The Gambler which won him the Grammy award for best male country vocal performance in 1980.^[1] Bobby Bare had recorded the song earlier that same year in his album BARE CBS KC35314 (1978). The song was written by Don Schlitz who had recorded it previously, and had charted at #65 on the country charts with it. It was one of five consecutive songs by Rogers to hit #1 on the Billboard country music charts. On the pop chart, the song made #16 in early 1979.

It is also the theme song used for Rogers’ long running TV movie serial of the same name, in which he stars as a fictional professional poker player called Brady Hawkes. It was used in Episode 2 of BBC series Blackpool.

Story

The song itself tells the story of a late-night meeting on a train “bound for nowhere” between Rogers (as narrator) and an unnamed old man who is the gambler. The gambler tells Rogers that he can tell Rogers is down on his luck (“out of aces”) by the look in his eyes and offers him advice in exchange for the last swallow of whisky Rogers has. After the gambler takes the drink (and a cigarette), he gives the following advice:

The gambler then mentions that the “secret to survivin’ is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep” and that “the best you can hope for is to die in your sleep”. At this point, the gambler puts out the cigarette and goes to sleep.

At the end of the song we are told that “somewhere in the darkness the gambler he broke even”, and that the narrator finds “an ace that I could keep” in his final words. Rogers’ rendition on the Muppet Show indicates the Gambler actually dies.

Chart performance

References

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.