It’s a song you can perform to one another with a kiss or a wink - and only you and your partner will know what you’re really feeling. For younger singers, even a semi-ironic duet of “Islands” allows them to express and confront the kind of heavy sentiment - “I can’t live without you if the love was gone” - that are often easier to sing than to say aloud. What’s helped make “Islands” such a go-to public duet is its sheer frankness - the way both vocalists declare their love in such unequivocal, unapologetic ways:įor married karaoke couples of a certain age, performing “Islands in the Stream” together is akin to making a very public renewal of their vows. Country and pop stations alike put the song in seemingly perpetual rotation, and 15 years after its release, “Islands” returned for a cameo appearance on the charts via “Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are),” the 1998 hit from Fugee member Pras that sampled Rogers’ tune for its chorus.īut not every chart-topping, genre-crossing hit becomes a karaoke hit. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, knocking out Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (which itself would go on to become a karaoke standard in the years to come). Released on Rogers’ 1983 album “Eyes That See in the Dark,” the song quickly hit No. And though some of the brothers Gibb’s lyrics are a bit byzantine (“there was a peace unknown”?), they’re connected by a stream of gorgeous melodies. It’s not hard to understand why people have been singing “Islands in the Stream” to one another for nearly 40 years: After all, it’s a near-perfect specimen of sturdily constructed soft-rock, co-written by Bee Gees members Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb just a few years after the success of “Saturday Night Fever” (Barry Gibb, who also produced the tune, even recorded a leaner, airier demo version of the song that circulated among fans for years).
And while there are several equally popular contenders for best karaoke duet of all time - ranging from “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” to “Shallow” - none are as defiantly sincere, nor as ah-ha accessible, as “Islands in the Stream.”
Like Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” or Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” it’s a song every regular karaoke-goer has been compelled to perform (or forced to endure) during their career. But one of Rogers’ less-discussed feats is the decades-long karaoke success of “Islands in the Stream,” his smash 1983 duet with Dolly Parton.
Kenny rogers through the years karakoke tv#
When Kenny Rogers died Friday at the age of 81, he left behind a remarkably expansive pop-culture legacy, which included chart-topping albums, hit TV Westerns and a beloved fast-food chicken chain.
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