The Gambler (song)


"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 song around Nashville before Bobby Bare recorded it on his album Bare at the urging of Shel Silverstein. Bare's version did not catch on and was never released as a single, so Schlitz recorded it himself, but this version failed to chart higher than No. 65. Other musicians took notice and recorded the song in 1978, including Johnny Cash, who put it on his album Gone Girl. It was Kenny Rogers, however, who made the song a mainstream success. His version was a No. 1 country hit and made its way to the Pop charts at a time when country 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 performance in 1980. In 2006 Don Schlitz appeared in the Kenny Rogers career retrospective documentary "The Journey", where he praised both Rogers' and producer Larry Butler's contributions to the song, stating "they added several ideas that were not mine, including the new guitar intro".
It was one of five consecutive songs by Rogers to hit No. 1 on the Billboard country music charts. On the pop chart, the song made it to No. 16, and No. 3 on the Easy Listening chart. It has become one of Rogers's most enduring hits and a signature song. As of November 13, 2013, the digital sales of the single stood at 798,000 copies and after all these years the single has yet to be certified gold by RIAA certifications. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."
Following Rogers' death on March 20, 2020, "The Gambler" soared in at No. 1 on Billboard's Digital Song Sales chart, followed by "Islands in the Stream", with Dolly Parton, also debuting at No. 2.

Content

The song itself tells the story of a late-night meeting on a train "bound for nowhere" between the narrator and a man known only as the gambler. The gambler tells the narrator that he can tell he is down on his luck by the look in his eyes and offers him advice in exchange for his last swallow of whisky. After the gambler takes the drink, 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". Although the song does not specifically say so, many listeners assume that the gambler breaks even by dying at the end of the song.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Cover versions

  • Johnny Cash on Gone Girl
  • Alvin and the Chipmunks on their album Urban Chipmunk
  • Blake Shelton on Cracker Barrel: Songs of the Year Concert
  • Brian Posehn with Jamey Jasta on Fart and Wiener Jokes
  • Slightly Stoopid on The Gambler

    In popular culture

  • Kenny Rogers starred in a series of TV movies loosely inspired by the song and set in the Old West, starting with Kenny Rogers as The Gambler and followed by Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues, Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues, The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, and Gambler V: Playing for Keeps.
  • In 1979, when Rogers guest-starred in a season 4 episode of The Muppet Show, he performed this song with a Muppet character. Rogers is shown seated on a train with three muppets, one of them The Gambler. Rogers sings the opening verse, while Nelson sings most of "The Gambler's" dialog, then 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 song's last two choruses, and lets a deck of cards fly from his hand before fading away.
  • The USFL team Houston Gamblers was named after this song. Kenny Rogers was born and raised in Houston, Texas.
  • In a 1990 episode of the sitcom Perfect Strangers, Larry Appleton sings the chorus of the song while demonstrating his new stereo chair. He stops when Balki Bartokomous joins him in the chair and the sing-along.
  • A caricature parody of Kenny Rogers singing the song appeared in the 1993 Pinky and the Brain short "Bubba Bo Bob Brain". 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 you play fish with me."
  • Country Yossi parodied the song in the 1980s on his ‘’’Wanted’’’ album as ‘’The Rabbi.’’
  • The song was used in the movie, George of the Jungle 2, while playing a card game.
  • In a 1996 episode of the sitcom NewsRadio, Matthew comically misquotes the chorus of the song.
  • On an episode of Monday Night Raw on November 12, 2001 at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts, wrestler The Rock sang the chorus to the then heel character of Stone Cold Steve Austin in a sing off after Austin sang "Delta Dawn" off key to jeers, The Rock sang the chorus of "The Gambler" to cheers.
  • The song became a dressing room anthem for the England players in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, which led to it becoming a pop UK top 40 hit.
  • On May 10, 2007, the cast of The Office sings the chorus of the song on the bus in the episode, "Beach Games."
  • On July 21, 2009, the song was released for the music game Rock Band as a playable track as part of the "Rock Band Country Track Pack" compilation disc. It was then made available via digital download on Dec 29, 2009.
  • A 2014 Geico television commercial features Rogers singing part of the song a cappella during a card game, to the displeasure of the other players.
  • 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.
  • The song plays during a montage scene in an episode of Supernatural titled "Weekend at Bobby's" and in another episode titled "Inside Man".
  • The song was played during a 2019 MLB World Series commercial showing Houston Astros players playing poker.
  • The song appears briefly in the 2019 Clint Eastwood film Richard Jewell.