Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
The gravel-and-grits voice of Kenny Rogers ultimately came to define the 'Urban Cowboy' era of pop excess, even as the earlier 'Lucille' and 'The Gambler' were some of the most galvanizing story songs in country music's history. Looking back at this body of hits, it's easy to poke fun at the treacley 'You Decorated My Life' or wince at the cheesy string arrangements on 'Through the Years.' It's also natural to wish Rogers had never heard of Sheena Easton, his misguided duet partner on 'We've Got Tonight,' and recorded more with the soulful, sad Dottie West ('Every Time Two Fools Collide') and the randy Dolly Parton ('Islands in the Stream'). (A bonus track, 'Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer,' pairs him with old pal Kim Carnes.) As the years went by, Rogers got fatter, lazier, and more content to make crappy TV movies and wallow in the flaccid sentimentality of adult contemporary pop ('Buy Me a Rose'). He also got smug--the worst of sins for a man in his business. But behind the microphone, he always knew how to make even the hoariest of lyrics resonate with feeling. And at his peak, he was the perfect male country superstar, equal parts swagger and sweet, sweet promise. --Alanna Nash









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Disc 1:

1. The Gambler
2. Through The Years
3. Lady
4. Lucille
5. Coward of The County
6. I Don't Need You
7. We've Got Tonight (with Sheena Easton)
8. Crazy
9. Islands In The Stream (with Dolly Parton)
10. She Believes In Me
11. Every Time Two Fools Collide (with Dottie West)
12. You Decorated My Life
13. Make No Mistake, She's Mine (with Ronnie Milsap)
14. Share Your Love With Me
15. All I Ever Need Is You
16. Buy Me A Rose (with Alison Krauss)
17. Daytime Friends
18. Love Or Something Like It
19. Love Will Turn You Around
20. Morning Desire
21. What Are We Doing In Love (with Dottie West)
22. Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer (with Kim Carnes)- Bonus Track

Rating: - Pretty Much Delivers What It Says In The Title
In many of my CD reviews I belabor the point regarding what constitutes an artist's "greatest" or "best" hits, offering up the argument that, to most fans out there, the term denotes those songs that made the national singles charts, whether the Billboard Pop Hot 100, Adult Contemporary (AC), R&B or Country. Now, sifting through the 2- and 3-star reviews for this release I see there are some who beg to differ. In the 2-star assessment the reviewer states flat out that these are "not Kenny's best" while in one of the 3-star reviews it states "... did not contain what I would call his greatest hits .... some of them never appeared high in the charts."

Well, for starters, this is titled "21 Number Ones" and, in that regard, that's exactly what they deliver. It may be argued that some of his tunes which charted lower were better - and I'd probably agree since quite often a # 2 or 3 finished there simply because another monster hit or two was competing at the time. But here they decided to present 21 of his # 1's. For the record, Kenny has (to date) 22 such hits, so if there's a complaint it revolves around why producer Rob Christie decided to include, as a bonus track, one that did not make it to # 1 on any of the charts.

That missing hit is What About Me? on RCA 13899 in the fall of 1984, billed to Kenny Rogers with Kim Carnes and James Ingram which finished at # 1 AC/# 15 Hot 100/# 57 R&B and # 70 Country. You can count on the fingers of one hand the songs that made all four charts! The bonus track, Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer, was a # 2 AC/# 3 Country and # 4 Hot 100 in the spring of 1980 on United Artists 1345, billed to Kenny Rogers with Kim Carnes. Certainly a major hit, but not in keeping with the title of the album which, if called 22 Numbers Ones, could just as easily have contained that missing # 1.

But that's a minor quibble. These are, despite some contentions, definitely among his greatest hits, presented in impeccable sound and with an insert containing six pages of track-by-track comments from Kenny, followed by chart performances, and sprinkled with several more nice photos of Kenny.

As for that other 2-star review that claims the cuts are missing the last 3-5 seconds, I can only conclude that he may be having a problem with his CD player because they're just fine in that regard, including Lady which is NOT missing the final chord.

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Rating: - A satisfying journey down memory lane
Kenny Rogers was at the peak of his career when I was growing up and he's always been a big favorite of mine. I've been looking for a good digitally remastered compilation to replace "20 Greatest Hits" which has got pretty poor audio quality when played alongside of music that was recorded more recently. I came across the CD "21 Number Ones" at Target. I was tempted to buy it but decided to wait until I got home and check the reviews on Amazon. After reading about the improved audio quality, I decided that I really wanted this collection and decided to download the mp3 version.

I was a bit disappointed to find that the mp3 version of the album that is available on Amazon contains six fewer tracks than the CD version, excluding all of Kenny's RCA recordings and the Sheena Easton duet "We've Got Tonight". I figured the RCA tracks were unavailable due to licensing restrictions, but why "We've Got Tonight" was exlcuded was a big mystery, since it was originally released on the Liberty label, as were most of the tracks in the collection. I deliberated about whether I should just order the CD, but then I discovered that most of the missing were available for download on another digitally-remastered set "A Love Song Collection". In the end, I was able to piece most of the album back together by purchasing "Number Ones" and some selected tracks from "A Love Song Collection." I'd already bought "Buy Me A Rose" from this set a while back, and I opted not to purchase "Islands In The Stream" since there's a perfectly good remastered version of this song on "The Essential Dolly Parton". The only track I couldn't get was the Ronnie Milsap duet "Make No Mistake, She's Mine", which was my least favorite song of this collection anyway, so that was no biggie. It took a little effort and ended costing $1 more than buying the CD, but it had the advantage of not having the tracks shortened to squeeze them onto one disk, as another reviewer had lamented.

Kenny Rogers recorded so many wonderful songs that have stood the test of time. Many of these songs could be hits today. Some may complain that they are more pop than country, but I think it is just great music -- and far better than the fodder that is spoon-fed to us by the sad state of affairs that is modern country radio. The oldest recordings in this set are over 30 years old ("Lucille" was released in 1977) but you would never know it from listening to them. They sound as if they were brand new recordings. I've never heard these songs sound so sharp and vibrant, which brings a whole new level of enjoyment to them. Listening to this album has brought back a lot of wonderful memories of when I was growing up. This collection is one that I will be playing quite a lot. I highly recommend it.

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Rating: - Not Gambling Here
Don't hesitate to pick up this CD if you love Kenny Rogers like I do. It's the best. I knew each & every song. Great CD!

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Rating: - NOT KENNY'S BEST
Frankly I am disappointed with this CD. I'm not sure why since all 21 songs were #1 hits.

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Rating: - Very very very good Collection;-)
Hey!...just wanted to point out that this cd-collection are GREAT!!!!...i have listen to this album lots lots of times....and there is so many favorite-songs...one of them are "Coward of the County" and "The Gambler"...to name a few of Kennys great songs!!!..So thankyou Kenny for brought out so great songs!..Cheerz from Bina;o)