Country Music Legend of the Week, Kenny Rogers [VIDEOS]

Kenny Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. Though he has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres and topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About.com poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever". He was voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.

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Kenny Rogers - Ruby
In 1967, Kenny Rogers and fellow band members members Mike Settle, Terry Williams and Thelma Camacho formed The First Edition (later renamed "Kenny Rogers and The First Edition"). They chalked up a string of hits on both the pop and country charts, including "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town".
In his First Edition days, Rogers had something of a hippie image, with long brown hair, an earring, and pink sunglasses. Known affectionately in retrospect as "Hippie Kenny", Rogers had a much smoother vocal style than in his later career.
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Kenny Rogers - Lucille
The single "Lucille" (1977) was a major hit, reaching number one on the pop charts in 12 countries, selling over five million copies, and firmly establishing Rogers' post-First Edition career. On the strength of "Lucille", the album Kenny Rogers reached #1 in the Billboard Country Album Chart.
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Kenny Rogers - The Gambler
More success was to follow, including the multi-million selling album The Gambler.
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Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County
Another international Number 1 single, "Coward of the County", taken from the equally successful album, Kenny.
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Kenny Rogers & Dottie West - Every Time Two Fools Collide LIVE
In the late 1970s, Rogers teamed up with close friend and country singer Dottie West for a series of albums and duets. Together the duo had three hit albums, selling out stadiums and arenas while on tour.
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Kenny Rogers & Dottie West - All I'll Ever Need Is You
Of West, Rogers stated in a 1995 TNN interview "She, more than anybody else I ever worked with, sang with such emotion that you actually believed what she sang." Rogers was with West when she died after sustaining injuries in a 1991 car accident. In 1995 he starred opposite Michele Lee in the CBS biopic Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story.
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Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton - Islands In The stream
"Islands in the Stream", Rogers' duet with Dolly Parton, was the first single to be released from Eyes That See in the Dark in the United States, and it quickly went to #1 in the Billboard Hot 100 (it would prove to be the last country single to reach #1 on that chart until "Amazed" by Lonestar did so in 2000).
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Kenny Rogers - The Gambler
Rogers also had success as an actor. His 1982 movie Six Pack, in which he played a race-car driver, took more than $20 million at the United States box office, while made-for-TV movies such as The Gambler, Christmas in America, and Coward of the County (based on hit songs of his) topped ratings lists.
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Kenny Rogers - You Decorated My Life
The next few years saw Rogers scoring several top country hits on a regular basis, including "You Decorated my Life," "She Believes In Me," among others.
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Kenny Rogers - She Believes In Me