Classics

About Classics

Classics is a duet album by Kenny Rogers and Dottie West, released in 1979.

Article

Classics is a duet album by Kenny Rogers and Dottie West, released in 1979.

This album was Kenny Rogers' and Dottie West's second album together. Their previous album, Every Time Two Fools Collide, was a major seller, and made them one of the biggest duet acts country music has ever seen. This album was no different. The album sold very well, and peaked at number three on the Top Country Albums chart in 1979, and No.82 on the Billboard 200. This album featured cover versions of classic hits by other artists, including two country hit singles, one went to number one, called "All I Ever Need Is You" (a big hit for Sonny and Cher), and another went to number three, called "'Til I Can Make It on My Own" (a hit for Tammy Wynette).

The album was certified by the RIAA as Platinum. It has sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

Personnel

Kenny Rogers - vocals

Dottie West - guitar, vocals

Tommy Allsup – bass

Byron Bach – strings

George Binkley III – strings

Larry Butler – harpsichord, keyboards, producer

Jimmy Capps – guitar

Jerry Carrigan – percussion, drums

John Catchings – strings

Marvin Chantry – strings

Gene Chrisman – percussion, drums

Roy Christensen – strings

Bobby Daniels – backing vocals

Randy Dorman – guitar

Pete Drake – steel guitar

Ray Edenton – guitar

Steve Glassmeyer – soprano saxophone, backing vocals

Gene Golden – backing vocals

Carl Gorodetzky – strings

Lennie Haight – strings

The Jordanaires – backing vocals

Bill Justis – strings, string arrangements

Sheldon Kurland – strings

Byron Metcalf – percussion, drums

Bob Moore – bass

Hargus "Pig" Robbins – keyboards

Billy Sanford – guitar

Billy Sherrill – engineer

Steven Maxwell Smith – strings

Gary VanOsdale – strings

Pamela VanOsdale – strings

Chip Young – guitar

Reggie Young – guitar

Article from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), where it is maintained by volunteer editors.

Notable quotes

“The more rigorously criticism historicizes a work of art, in the sense of lodging it in the context of the moment of its production, the less likely it becomes for criticism to be able to explain either its own subsequent interest in the work or the possibility of lay—that is, nonacademic—interest in reading it.”
— Russell Berman, Fiction Sets You Free: Literature, Liberty and Western Culture (2007), pp. 5-6
“I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.”
— Confucius, Analects, Book 7, Chapter 19
“The Chinese Communist Party has recognized that the Greek and Latin classics can be used as tools—not against Persia or Carthage, but against “liberalism, constitutionalism, and multi-party democracy.” Meanwhile, the West’s own retreat from classical education allows China to present itself, confidently, as “the main protector of the Western classics.””
— Massimo Introvigne, "Plato Goes to Beijing: Why Xi Jinping Wants China to Become a World Leader in Greek and Latin Studies", Bitter Winter (April 7, 2026)
“I do not know what meaning classical studies could have for our time if they were not untimely—that is to say, acting counter to our time and thereby acting on our time and, let us hope, for the benefit of a time to come.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations, “On the uses and disadvantages of history for life,” Preface, R. Hollingdale, trans. (1983), § 2.0, p. 60
“Our understanding of the thought of the past is liable to be the more adequate, the less the historian is convinced of the superiority of his own point of view, or the more he is prepared to admit the possibility that he may have to learn something, not merely about the thinkers of the past, but from them.”
— Leo Strauss, What is Political Philosophy? (1959), p. 68
“The fact is, the public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art. They degrade the classics into authorities. They use them as bludgeons for preventing the free expression of Beauty in new forms.”
— Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism, ¶ 32

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.