Kenny Rogers

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Target-Exclusive CD: Target.com

Kenny Rogers' first posthumous studio release, Life Is Like a Song is built around eight never-before-heard recordings spanning 2008-2011 and two rarities.  Among the selections, the superstar brought his familiar, distinctive, and lived-in vocals to Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" and The Temptations' Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong/Rodger Penzabene standard "I Wish I Would Rain" (both of which feature new instrumentation from producers Kyle Lehning and Viktor Krauss) and to a perhaps more unexpected cover of "I Will Wait for You," the lovely Academy Award-nominated tune by Michel Legrand, Jacques Demy, and American lyricist Norman Gimbel from director Demy's film musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.  He sings old friend Kim Carnes' "Love Is a Drug" and revisits Larry Keith and Jim Hurt's "Am I Too Late."  Australian country singer Jamie O'Neal appears on the new duet "Straight Into Love."  The most high-profile collaborator on the set is Rogers' longtime friend Dolly Parton, on a remix of "Tell Me That You Love Me," which was first issued on the 2009 Time Life box set The First 50 Years.  The poignant, Lionel Richie-penned "Goodbye" (also helmed by Brown) hailed from that same box; it was reissued as a digital single following Rogers' 2020 death and also gets a reprise on this new album.  Two additional tracks will be available only on the Target-exclusive CD and digital edition: a cover of Mack Gordon and Harry Warren's "At Last" (a No. 2 hit for Glenn Miller in 1942 that's perhaps best known today in Etta James' bluesy 1960 reinvention) and Buddy Hyatt's original song "Say Hello to Heaven."