Kentucky Gambler

"Kentucky Gambler"
Single by Merle Haggard
from the album Keep Movin' On
B-side	"You'll Always Be Special"
Released	October 1974
Genre	Country
Label	Capitol
Writer(s)	Dolly Parton
Producer(s)	Ken Nelson Fuzzy Owen
Merle Haggard singles chronology
"Old Man from the Mountain" (1974) "Kentucky Gambler" (1974) "Always Wanting You" (1975)

"Kentucky Gambler" is a 1974 song written and performed by Dolly Parton. "Kentucky Gambler" was issued as a track from Dolly Parton's, The Bargain Store album from 1975. That same year, Merle Haggard, covered "Kentucky Gambler" where it was his nineteenth number one song on the country chart. (Coincidentally, Parton's The Bargain Store album featured a cover of a Haggard composition, "You'll Always Be Special to Me".) The Merle Haggard version stayed at number one for a single week and spent a total of eleven weeks on the chart. (The following year, Haggard would cover another Dolly Parton song, "The Seeker".)

A classic Dolly Parton story song, "Kentucky Gambler" tells the story of a miner from Kentucky who abandons his wife and children for the bright lights of Reno, where he initially does very well at gambling, "winning at everything he played". Eventually, however, his winning streak comes to a halt, as he loses all of his winnings. Broke, he returns home, only to find that his wife has found someone else and has moved on without him. He concludes that "a gambler loses much more than he wins".

Chart performance

Chart (1974-1975)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	1

References

Preceded by "Ruby Baby" by Billy "Crash" Craddock	Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single January 18, 1975	Succeeded by "(I'd Be) A Legend in My Time" by Ronnie Milsap
Preceded by "Big Red Jimmy" by Jerry Warren	RPM Country Tracks number-one single February 8, 1975