Through The Years

Album: Share Your Love (1981)
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Songfacts®:

  • One of the most famous anthems of marital fidelity, "Through The Years" finds Rogers singing about a lifelong companion who has been his steadfast support. At the time, he was married to his fourth wife, the actress Marianne Gordon. They divorced in 1993.
  • This was written by the songwriters Steve Dorff and Marty Panzer. Dorff had written a number of songs for Anne Murray, including "I Just Fall in Love Again" and "You Set My Dreams To Music"; Panzer often co-write with Barry Manilow, including Manilow's hits "It's A Miracle" and "This One's For You."

    Panzer wrote the lyric, which he brought to Dorff's house, where they were having dinner. According to Dorff, they put the music to the song in just 15 minutes while they were waiting to eat.
  • Along with the rest of the Share Your Love album, the song was produced by Lionel Richie - they had previously teamed on Rogers' hit "Lady." Richie is the one who decided "Through The Years" was a good fit for Rogers.

    "Kenny was actually the third or fourth person that was approached with that song," co-writer Steve Dorff said in a Songfacts interview. "Barry Manilow and Mac Davis passed on it. Glen Campbell passed on it. Those were the notable ones. Lionel Richie had heard the song and loved it and played it for his people and that's how it happened. I got a phone call from Gene Page, that great arranger, who called me and said, 'Congratulations! We just cut your song with Kenny Rogers, and it sounds amazing.'"
  • This song has soundtracked countless anniversary videos, and has occasionally popped up on TV: It appeared in the 1986 Love Boat episode "My Stepmother, Myself," and in the 2013 Raising Hope episode "Sex, Clown and Videotape."
  • This was one of Rogers' most popular live songs, a mainstay at his concerts through the years :)
  • Rogers was a regular on the Pop, Country and Adult Contemporary charts. "Through The Years" was his fifth AC #1; the song also went to #5 Country and #13 on the Hot 100.

Comments: 1

  • Lucyintheskyy from IndianaThis is one of Kenny's best songs ever. I love everything you cover about everything to do with this hit song by the late, great, & talented Mr. Kenny Rogers.

    Although, as I'm looking through your list of Kenny's songs- I notice some other very notable songs of his career are NOT listed on your site. What's up with that? How does one request songs to be added to your site?

    I can give you KUDOS for the AWESOME variety of songs that you DO have, and I've thoroughly enjoyed learning the backgrounds of sooo many that I had no idea about. The details are so interesting to me. I'm very thankful I found your site, I can get lost for hours & hours researching & reading all the ones you have available. But then it's so frustrating when there's a certain song I'm looking for and I get the message- "No Results Available."

    At any rate, I still appreciate ALL the work you guys have put into your site. You definitely cover a wide variety of music, and your site is my #1 go to when looking for the background & meaning of a certain song. Just hate when I have certain ones, and I find out you don't have them. That's when I have to check out other sites, though your site is my preferred method of learning about many different songs. Thank you for all the hard work I'm sure it's taken you guys to cover as many songs as you do. Lately, my most favorite category has been "One Hit Wonders." Again, I can stay busy on that list for hours!

    I highly recommend this site to anyone who enjoys learning any & all the info you want about many, many songs. I can assure you, Songfacts has what you're looking for, 99% of the time....all available to us who love learning all the backgrounds of many different songs!

    Thank You Songfacts!!
    Your #1 Fan!!
    LucyInTheSkyy (Aka-Kelly)
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