I first saw Kenny and this band as a youngster in the late 1960's on a tv show,and have liked him ever since.Thanks Harri.

You can't beat class and that was pure class

This was before he went put on his own. The First Edition and Kenney Rogers had quite a few hits. Ruben James, Somethings Buring, I Just Stop In To See What My Condition Is to name a few.

From the 1969 album, " Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town", Kenny and The First Edition, pay homage to this Mel Tillis song. Written about a soldier who came home from the war in a wheelchair and how Ruby left him at night to go party. It was a last minute decision to add this as a filler song on the album. It went to Number 2 in the UK and Number 6 in the US. The opening percussion just grabs your attention and drives the song , followed by Kenny's gruff gravely tones paved with the emotions of heartache. 💔💔 One of the greats. Great reaction Harri. Thanks Imadrummin. 🥁🥁👏👏 Cheers from Canada ❤❤🇨🇦🇨🇦

I love this song so much!!

TopTen hit for them back then ❤

Yes the song "Reuben James" is definitely the one you want to listen to as well!!!

This vocals by all of the singers are gorgeous are the instruments. It is sad beauty.

I just love it when you react to a song I totally forgot about, I didn't remember how sad it was either! You always put a smile on my face, thank you Harry😊

Ruby and " Ruben James" both so sad!

Haven't heard this tune in decades, really sad but really good! Thank you Harri👍❤️

This is the best recording of Kenny performing this song. I love his voice in the opening a cappella line, the timbre, the way his vibrato explodes off the word 'hair'. There is a live version of The First Edition playing this song on the allallallthetime channel with the original audio - it's not as good as the studio version here in your reaction, but you can see and hear Kenny playing electric bass. It's not lip synced the way other videos of Ruby played by The First Edition sometimes are.

This is a great song. I always liked it and haven't heard it in ages nor have I heard this version. I owned the original 45. I was 14 when this came out and every time I would hear it, when Kenny sang that last lyric, the desperation in his voice always got to me even at that age. Glad to see a reaction to this. Thanks. Note: Actually Harri, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition released their version in May of 1969. Mel Tillis who wrote the song released his version in January of 1967.

I was 17 when I first heard this, and I cried like a baby. I was going to request this one, so I'll find another sad one for you, Hari. Unless someone beats me to it❤

I was 14 and got a record player. My boyfriend (later, my husband) bought me Kenny Rogers and the first edition, and Paul Simon (Simon had just gone solo). My absolute favorite was Kenny's song "Somethings Burning". Thanks for the memories this song brought back.

Ruby was one of the early anto zViet Nam War protest songs. It was necessarily protesting the war itself, but it was one of the very first to let people know how this awful war was affecting our serviceman and what they came home to. An early expose of this war and shame how we treated its veterans.

Listen to "Lucille", also by Kenny , a real tear jerker .

Long before Rodgers went solo, I remembered "Kenny Rodgers and the First Edition" from my childhood days. They had a notable song that I really liked. Could it have been "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town"? Another great selection and reaction -- thank you, Imadrummin and Harri!

Love this song! One of my faves of theirs! My Mom's name was Ruby so even though she wasn't going out partying, still reminds me of her!!!❤❤❤❤❤❤

This is my favee Kenny Rogers song. I fell in love with it when I was 9 and have always loved it. A sadder song? Reuben James. There's the one you want.

❤YOU DECORATED MY LIFE by Kenny Rogers. Beautiful song❤❤❤😊

Always brings tears to my eyes. 😢

This was for me, Kenny, at his pop music vest. I met him and the First Edition early in their career on the Carolina coast. This song, along with Ruben James and Something's Burning, my personal favorite.

Nobody quite like Kenny Rogers and this is such a sad but great song. Thanks Harri and great choice Imadrummin.

My favorite from Kenny Rogers

Great song, great reaction

A great song, yeah this is a pretty sad one. Great reaction ❤️🙏

Great reaction. I could tell it hit you in the heart. My friends and I spending part of the summer of 1969 at the Wigwam, with pinball and pool tables. We also had some mood lifters and great songs playing. And this was one. It was a heartbreaker then. It is still a heartbreaker now.

The backup singers were perfect.

This version was a big hit in 1969.

❤Our family had this album when i was little❤❤

Written at the height of the Vietnam conflict, it covers a non-uncommon plight of returning vets especially if they returned as wounded warriors. And oh, the desperation in that last half-whispered line, "For God's sake, turn around." As others point out, "Lucille" is similarly sad. If you want to rid yourself of sad, call up Kenny's song "The Greatest" about a young boy doing solo baseball practice. Partial spoiler, it has a happy surprise ending.

Mel Tillis wrote great songs

"Lucille" is another really sad woman-doing-him-wrong song by Kenny Rogers.

This song is cinematic. It's easy to picture this story in an Oscar-winning movie.

Ever since this song came out, it has been the bane of my existence.

Great reaction Harri😊

I would say the saddest thing for me that Kenny had done is those face lifts.

Gordon Lightfoot did a good version as well. I think it was written by Mel Tillis.

Wow a blast from the past 🎉love it!

That one has to be my favorite, it's a perfect single. Course I love Just Dropped In as well.

Unfortunately, I know of someone who went through this. It is so awful. Love your reaction.

This song came out during the Vietnam War but was actually about a Korean War vet.

Kenny "The Gambler" Rogers never misses ☘️🇺🇲

Great reaction Harri, I can tell you have a good heart

I have waited SO LONG for a reaction channel to do this one! Thanks!

Lucille is certainly one of Kenny's saddest songs.

Again, Immadrummin has knocked it out of the park, thanks both you and Harri ❤❤❤❤. Reminds me of being young, hanging out with my dad ❤ Rueben James should be next 😊

This song was written by Mel Tilllis. I never knew that until I heard him talking about it once in an interview. He wrote it about his next door neighbor at a trailer park he once lived in. He was paralyzed in the Korean War and had a beautiful wife who was the subject of gossip over going out and cheating on him.

Love ya brother ❤

You tickle me. That's the saddest song, he's hurting, I'm hurting for him......... Let's listen to some more.

But seriously, you should watch their old live version of it. He looks pretty cool, singing it.

Mel Tillis wrote this song. I first heard it was in a small South Florida town named Okeechobee just north of the city limits at a bar called The Wagon Wheel. (A real live knife and gun club). Mel wrote this song about an incident when he and his best friend, an ex-New York Yankee baseball player married to a woman named "Ruby" who owned the Badcock furniture store, came home from a 2-week road trip where Mel was playing bars and drinking all around Florida. When they returned home, they found Ruby dressed up in a bright Red Dress ready for a night on the town, without her husband. 40 years after hearing Mel perform the song "Ruby" At the Wagon Wheel, this story was told to me by Mel himself 40 years later at the Grand rededication of the Badcock store here in Okeechobee. And yes, Ruby was there also laughing with Mel as he told the story.

As successful and beloved as he was i think he never sounded better than he did when he had the first edition back up singers.

My favorite Kenny song. 💔

This was for all of the Vietnam vets who came back home to find either their wives or girlfriends had left them, or been cheating on them while serving their country. In this song, "the husband of "Ruby" his wife, has been disabled and can no longer walk, and also perform his marital duties for his wife, so she leaves him alone at home in his wheelchair, while she goes out to party and have sex. This was more common than many of us knew at the time. Very sad, but not uncommon during all wars.

Another great request and reaction. Thanks Harri and Imadrummin 🌺✌️

This song made Kenny Rogers- Kenny Rogers. I love Kenny Rogers ❤. Wonderful request Imadrummin. What a great analysis and reaction Harri!!

Mel Tillis wrote this and I think recorded it first. Anyway he based it on a true story of a WWII vet who came home disabled and later killed himself and his wife. Updated to VietNam era.

One of the most depressing songs there are.

Thank you Ima for a wonderfull intro to this version 🎉 Just love Kenny Rogers ❤ And Thank you Harri 👍👍👍

A lot of good song mentions here, Reuben James for one, but another is 20 Years Ago.

It looks like It looks like Kenny released around five singles with 'The First Edition' in the UK '69-'71', two of which charted. 'Ruby' spent five weeks at Number two

When he did this song as a Solo Artist? I had it on 8-Track Tape....

❤❤❤❤

You asked for a sadder Kenny song but my suggestion isn't a sadder one, it's a beautiful one. It's called, BEAUTIFUL, ALL THAT YOU CAN BE. It's a parent singing about their child. In the video, Kenny is singing while you see home movies of Kenny and his son, Christopher Cody. Any parent will love this song and you get to hear his beautiful voice again.

You must not have heard his YOU PICKED A FINE TIME TO LEAVE ME LUCILLE

Please react to Kenny with Dottie West, “Til I Can Make It On My Own’. I cry every time I hear it. Thank you

i think "Lucille" is probably his saddest. along the same lines but slower paced. where Ruby was "taking her love to town", aka cheating on him, Lucille is married to him and they have small children and a farm, but Lucille has grown tired of it all and just leaves. and Kenny Rogers won many awards for this song.

🙏Kenny💔

One of those songs I actually sound decent singing as it sits right in my pocket. Is it me or does the 1st Edition look 16? Coward of the County is a similar theme to this.

One of my favorite Kenny Rogers songs. Thanks to I'm a drummin - and Harri for a great reaction. There is one other song by Kenny that gets the tears and emotions going and that's "The King of Oak Street." I would love to hear/watch your reaction to that one, Harri. I'll leave the link for you here. It's the original version (and the best!) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ptyCeNB0zpzPpHk.html

Haunting....

Take a listen to 'Sweet Music Man'. I think you'll really like it. Especially since I know you are also a music man!

I don't see it as a sad song. I see a man determined to pursue a woman who doesn't want him. It's a little sad, but the determination comes through stronger than the sadness.

I was a kid when this came out. I thought he was saying he had 4 hundred children and a crop in the field.

To me, Coward of the County is his saddest song.

Reuben James!

I would say "Sam Stone", by John Prine is even sadder.

The genius of it is that most people feel sorry for him ( most in the disability community would shutter...lol) but near the end, he admits that he'd kill her if he could...( most murder victims would shutter...lol) but it's set to nice music, with Kenny's voice...and in the 60s thru 80s, it was accepted. Probably wouldn't go over well in this " enlightened" culture.

Vietnam war era song.

released 1969 when I was13 vietnam war.??

(You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me) Lucille is close to being as sad as this. When you think about a struggling farm couple with several children and the mom just decides she can't take the hardship anymore and leaves. That poor single father trying to raise the kids and do the farming alone now. That mother who will try to party and drink away her guilt and ultimately not succeed. Yep, pretty sad.

Lucille is much sadder.Children involved : (

Didn’t Mel Tillis, the writer of this song, say this song is an about a veteran of the Korean conflict?

Look up adam carolla and norm mcdonald’s kenny rogers….review of coward of the county, hilarious !

I have no interest in Kenny Rogers. Luckily, I hovered over the thumbnail and saw it was the First Edition. They were one of my favorite bands in the '60s - '70s. They had so many great songs. Kenny as a solo artist was just not my style. He had a string of songs, you listen to once, they were interesting. Just not anything I'd go back to. Mo.