Read Online Luck or Something Like It by Kenny Rogers - Free Book Online Page B

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    “Oh, I remember Ed Townsend,” Dick said, brightening up.
    “It was the same show!” I said excitedly. “I was wearing a gray suit and a white shirt and I sang ‘That Crazy Feeling’ in a soda shop.”
    Dick frowned and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Kenny. I just have no memory of you being there.” I was crushed. (I found out later that he was teasing me the whole time.)
    Lelan was now promoting records for both Carlton and Pearl Records, but he was still thinking of new ways to push me as a solo singer. So we formed Ken-Lee Records and cut another couple of songs written by Lelan’s pal Ray Doggett. The A-side was “So Lonely Tonight,” backed by a song called “Beach Party.” We also recorded an old Cajun standard, “Jole Blon,” using a saxophone instead of an accordion. We were so clever—not successful, but clever.
    It was important to me to get the Cajun pronunciation correct in this song, so we brought in a real live Cajun from Louisiana. He coached me phonetically on every syllable until I had it right. A few years ago when I was in Quebec, I thought it would be fun to do something that sounded “French” that the French Canadians could relate to, so I picked a guy from the front of the row and started singing “Jole Blon.” The guy kept shaking his head, saying “That’s not French” every time I blurted out another line. Obviously my “flawless” Cajun French wasn’t French enough for the Québécois.
    When those destined-to-be-but-never-were classics “So Lonely Tonight,” “Beach Party,” and “Jole Blon” went absolutely nowhere, I did yet another song for Carlton, “For You Alone,” backed with Ray Doggett’s “I’ve Got a Lot to Learn.” Again, no traction—I had no hits for Carlton Records. Now divorced from Janice, I met Anita Bryant, who was on the same label at the time, and had a couple of dates with her. She had already been the second runner-up to Miss America in 1959 and was riding the wave of a genuine hit, “Paper Roses.” I was pretty impressed with her.
    You’d think that not having a hit by then, after more than a few tries, would have gotten me down, but it didn’t. I had that positive Lucille Rogers attitude, believing that hard work and perseverance would in the end win out. . . . something would come along. After all, I had dated Anita Bryant. I had had a crackerjack write-up in the Houston Chronicle that all my friends and family could read. I had changed my stage name to Kenny, and to top it all off, I had been on American Bandstand !
    Things weren’t all that bad. I have never forgotten the adage I learned in childhood that the wind can shift most any time. Like Grandpa Rogers had said all those years ago: “Never assume today is like it was yesterday.”

Chapter Six
    Where It All Began . . . Jazz
    As has happened often in my life, just as things seem to hit a low point, a little bit of luck kicks in. After my first brush at a recording career and TV stardom, I started meeting a series of people around Houston and getting a run of gigs that would eventually lead to an entry into the world of jazz. I’ve often heard my various career moves—from jazz to folk to rock to country—described as “reinventions,” and I may have said that myself once or twice. I think a better way to put it is that I have always left myself open to change; I went where the music took me.
    While attending the University of Houston for a brief period, I started hanging out at a lot of studios, playing guitar and singing on sessions, including ones where we harmonized on advertising jingles for local businesses such as hardware and furniture stores. Every one of them seemed to give the same message, “Don’t spend more than you have to,” when of course the real message was “Just spend it on us.” In any case, I was getting experience.
    When an acclaimed regional jazz pianist named Bobby Doyle heard me play in a club one night in 1959, he asked me