You Gotta Know When to Holdem Know When to Fold Them You Never Count Your Money at the Table

1978 single by Kenny Rogers

1978 single by Kenny Rogers

"The Gambler"
Single past Kenny Rogers
from the album The Gambler
B-side	"Momma's Waiting"
Released	November 15, 1978
Genre	Country
Length	iii:34
Characterization	United Artists
Songwriter(south)	Don Schlitz
Producer(s)	Larry Butler
Kenny Rogers singles chronology
"Anyone Who Isn't Me Tonight" (1978) "The Gambler" (1978) "All I Always Need Is Yous" (1979)
Music video
"The Gambler" on YouTube

"The Gambler" is a song written by Don Schlitz and recorded by several artists, most famously by American country music singer Kenny Rogers.

Don Schlitz wrote this song in August 1976 when he was 23 years old. It took two years of shopping the vocal around Nashville before Bobby Bare recorded it on his album Bare at the urging of Shel Silverstein. Bare's version did not take hold of on and was never released as a single, so Schlitz recorded it himself, but that version failed to chart higher than No. 65. Other musicians took notice and recorded the vocal in 1978, including Johnny Cash, who put it on his album Gone Girl.

It was Kenny Rogers, still, who made the song a mainstream success. His version was a No. 1 country hit and made its way to the popular charts at a fourth dimension when land songs rarely crossed over. It was released in November 1978 as the title track from his album The Gambler which won him the Grammy award for best male country vocal operation in 1980.^[1] In 2006, Don Schlitz appeared in the Kenny Rogers career retrospective documentary "The Journeying", in which he praised both Rogers' and producer Larry Butler's contributions to the song, stating "they added several ideas that were non mine, including the new guitar intro".

Content [edit]

The song itself tells the story of a late-night meeting on a railroad train "jump for nowhere" betwixt the narrator and a homo known only as "the gambler". The gambler tells the narrator that he tin can tell he is downwardly on his luck ("out of aces") past the await in his optics, and offers him communication in substitution for his last eat of whisky. After the gambler takes the drink (and smokes a cigarette), he gives the following advice:

You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,

Know when to walk away, know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the tabular array,

There'll exist time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

The gambler then mentions that the "secret to survivin' is knowing what to throw away, and knowing what to keep" and that "the best yous tin promise for is to die in your slumber". At this point, the gambler puts out the cigarette and goes to sleep. Shortly thereafter, he indeed dies in his sleep as he had hoped; "somewhere in the darkness, the gambler, he broke even", and the narrator finds "an ace that I could go on", "in his terminal words."^[2]

Inspiration [edit]

On the American Top twoscore radio program of Feb 3, 1979, Casey Kasem reported that Schlitz said of "The Gambler": "Something more than than me wrote that song. I'one thousand convinced of that. I really had no thought where the song was coming from. There was something going through my head, which was my father. It was just a song, and it somehow filtered through me. Six weeks later I received the final verse. Months afterward information technology came to me that it was inspired by, and mayhap a gift from, my father." Schlitz'southward male parent had passed away in 1976.

Chart operation [edit]

Certifications [edit]

Legacy [edit]

The song became Rogers'due south signature song and most indelible hit. It was 1 of five consecutive songs by Rogers to hit No. one on the Billboard country music charts.^[19] On the popular nautical chart, the song made information technology to No. 16, and No. 3 on the Piece of cake Listening chart.^[20] It inspired a series of TV movies loosely inspired by the song and set up in the Sometime West, starting with Kenny Rogers as The Gambler (1980) and followed past Kenny Rogers equally The Gambler: The Adventure Continues (1983), Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Fable Continues (1987), The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991), and Gambler 5: Playing for Keeps (1994).

As of Nov xiii, 2013, the digital sales of the single stood at 798,000 copies and after all these years the unmarried has all the same to be certified gold by RIAA certifications.^[21] In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress equally being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."^[22] The song was ranked number 18 out of the top 76 songs of the 1970s by Internet radio station WDDF Radio in their 2016 countdown.^[23] Following Rogers' death on March twenty, 2020, "The Gambler" soared to No. i on Billboard'south Digital Song Sales chart, followed past "Islands in the Stream", with Dolly Parton, which debuted at No. 2.^[24]

In pop culture [edit]

Sports [edit]

• The Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League, who played in Rogers' hometown, were named after the song.
• One-time Major League Baseball game bullpen Kenny Rogers was nicknamed "The Gambler" later the vocal, due to sharing a name with the song's artist.
• The song is the unofficial 'canticle' for Edinburgh University Men'southward Hockey Club, where the social club are colloquially chosen "The Gamblers".

Television [edit]

• In 1979, when Rogers guest-starred in a season four episode of The Muppet Evidence, he performed this song with a Muppet character.^[25] Rogers is shown seated on a train with iii muppets, 1 of them The Gambler (portrayed by Jerry Nelson). Rogers sings the opening verse, while Nelson sings most of "The Gambler's" dialog, so falls asleep just as Rogers concludes the song's story. After he dies, The Gambler's spirit rises from his Muppet body, singing backup and dances to the vocal'southward last two choruses, and lets a deck of cards wing from his hand before fading away.^[26]
• A caricature parody of Kenny Rogers singing the song appeared in the 1993 Pinky and the Brain short "Bubba Bo Bob Encephalon" (flavour ane, episode 34). The lyrics to this version were changed to refer to Go Fish: "You gotta know how to cut 'em, know how to shuffle, know how to deal the cards before yous play fish with me."
• In the 2007 episode of The Function "Beach Games," Kevin Malone sings the verses of the song in the bus while the rest of the staff joins him for the chorus. This was a nod to Kevin's having a gambling problem.

Other [edit]

• Country Yossi parodied the song in the 1980s on his Wanted album as "The Rabbi".^[27]
• On July 21, 2009, the song was released for the music game Stone Band as a playable runway as part of the "Rock Band State Track Pack" compilation disc. It was made bachelor via digital download on at the cease of 2009.
• A 2014 Geico tv set commercial features Rogers singing office of the song a cappella during a card game, to the displeasure of the other players.
• In the 2016 video game Phoenix Wright: Ace Chaser – Spirit of Justice, this happens on one occasion in the game's fifth case: If Apollo Justice presents the wrong show, Phoenix recounts something about a gambler singing the start part of the chorus, after which the judge chimes in that he likes the song earlier singing the rest of the chorus. Apollo, embarrassed, thinks, "I don't know what's worse: the penalisation, or their singing."
• The song was featured in the trailer for the 2021 movie Regular army of the Dead.

References [edit]

1. ^ Reader'south digest almanac and yearbook, 1981, p. 274
2. ^ "The Gambler lyrics". Lyrics.com . Retrieved June one, 2021.
3. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.South.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 256. ISBN0-646-11917-6.
4. ^ "Kenny Rogers – The Gambler". Summit twoscore Singles.
5. ^ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN84-8048-639-two.
6. ^ "KENNY ROGERS | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Theofficialcharts.com. Archived from the original on December 24, 2011. Retrieved Oct 13, 2016.
7. ^ "Kenny Rogers Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
8. ^ "Kenny Rogers Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
9. ^ "Kenny Rogers Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard.
10. ^ "Greenbacks Box Top 100 3/x/79". Tropicalglen.com. March ten, 1979. Archived from the original on March 18, 2016. Retrieved Oct 13, 2016.
11. ^ "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. July 17, 2013. Retrieved October thirteen, 2016.
12. ^ "Summit 100 Hits of 1979/Top 100 Songs of 1979". Musicoutfitters.com . Retrieved October 13, 2016.
13. ^ "Adult Gimmicky Songs – Year-End 1979". Billboard. Jan 2, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
14. ^ "Hot State Songs – Yr-End 1979". Billboard. January 2, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
15. ^ "Cash Box YE Pop Singles - 1979". Tropicalglen.com. Dec 29, 1979. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved Oct 13, 2016.
16. ^ "Danish unmarried certifications – Kenny Rogers – The Gambler". IFPI Danmark. Retrieved September xv, 2021.
17. ^ "New Zealand single certifications – Kenny Rogers – The Gambler". Recorded Music NZ. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
18. ^ "British single certifications – Kenny Rogers – The Gambler". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
19. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Volume Of Top 40 State Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Enquiry. p. 298.
20. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Tiptop Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 207.
21. ^ Matt Bjorke (November 13, 2013). "Country Chart News - The Top 30 Digital Singles - Nov 13, 2013: CMA Awards Drive Sales; Eric Church building "The Outsiders" #i; Taylor Swift "Red" #3". Roughstock. Archived from the original on April 21, 2014.
22. ^ "National Recording Registry Reaches 500". Library of Congress. March 21, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
23. ^ "All-time of the seventy'southward & 80'southward". WDDF Radio. Retrieved October thirteen, 2016.
24. ^ Trust, Gary (March 30, 2020). "Kenny Rogers Has the Elevation Two Best-selling Songs of the Week". Billboard . Retrieved March 31, 2020.
25. ^ "Kenny Rogers' The Gambler on the Muppet Testify". May 14, 2020. Archived from the original on December xiv, 2021 – via YouTube.
26. ^ Betts, Stephen L. (March 21, 2020). "Meet Kenny Rogers Perform 'The Gambler' on 'The Muppet Show'". Rolling Stone . Retrieved July 20, 2020.
27. ^ "Does anyone know the lyrics for".

External links [edit]

• Lyrics of this song
• Kenny Rogers - The Gambler on YouTube

hamlincomak1995.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(song)

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