The Gambler – Kenny Rogers

Kenny Rogers’ ‘The Gambler’ is one of the best-loved gambling songs of all time. It was written by Don Schlitz in 1976 when he was 23 years old. The song was recorded by many artists, the first being Bobby Bare. Johnny Cash also recorded it, putting it on his ‘Gone Girl’ in 1978, but it was the Kenny Rogers version that achieved mainstream success. It made No.1 in the charts in America and won him a Grammy for the Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1980.

As songs about gamblers go, it tells the story of a down-in-the-dumps guy’s chance meeting with a gambler on a train. The chorus is the killer, with the lyrics: 

You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em,

Know when to walk away, know when to run,

You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.

There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.

‘Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town,’ The Coward of the County,’ ‘The Gambler,’ and Islands in the Stream where Rogers duetted with Dolly Parton, are four of the most iconic country songs that people associate with Kenny Rogers.

Luck Be A Lady – Frank Sinatra

For those readers old enough to remember Frank Sinatra, you’ll no doubt also remember that ‘Old Blue Eyes’, the singer/actor, was also a keen gambler. His exploits at casinos in Las Vegas with his fellow Rat Pack compatriots, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior, are well-documented. It therefore seems quite appropriate that he should record ‘Luck Be a Lady,’ a song from the 1955 musical, ‘Guys and Dolls.’ It couldn’t be much more appropriate. Music for gamblers by one of the best-known gamblers in the entertainment business.

In the movie, the song was sung by Marlon Brando, who played the part of gambler, Sky Masterson.

The lyrics vocalise the hope of our young gambler who is praying that he will win a bet, which will influence whether or not he can save his relationship with his lady-love.

Luck Be A Lady was recorded by several great artists, including Jack Jones on his ‘Bewitched’ album in 1964, Barbara Streisand on her ’Back to Broadway’ album in 1994, and Seal on his ‘Standards’ album in 2017.

Of all the songs about gamblers and what they hope for, namely for luck to be on their side in love as well as in the casino, ‘Luck Be a Lady’ could be the gamblers’ anthem.

Poker Face – Lady Gaga

Even the tiniest flicker of emotion will betray you when playing poker and the stakes are high. If you want to stay in control of the situation, you need to wear your best poker face. When Lady Gaga wrote ‘Poker Face,’ she sought to compare hiding your emotions via your best deadpan poker face, not betraying your intentions in relationships in the bedroom. 

With its pounding beat and sexual innuendos, Lady Gaga delivers what has to be one of the raunchiest modern songs about gamblers ever written or performed. Her use of lines like ‘I wanna hold ’em like they do in Texas, and ‘luck and intuition play the cards with spades to start’ are superbly interwoven into the song’s lyrics. Released in 2008, ‘Poker Face’ helped to establish Lady Gaga as a force majeure in the pop world, and someone who knows how to get her way with love in her boudoir.

Ace of Spades – Motörhead

No review of songs about gamblers would be complete without this famous rock anthem from Motörhead. It borrows phrases and expressions not just from one gambling game, but several. For example, in relation to Blackjack, it includes the lines, ‘The Ace of Spades,’ and ‘Double up or quit, double stake or split, ‘ and from Craps, the lines, ‘Seven or eleven,’ and ‘Snake eyes watching you.’ 

The ‘Ace of Spades’ is rock music for gamblers at its best. It’s not only a heavy rock classic, but also one of the classic songs about gambling luck.

Apparently, the origin of the song’s lyrics comes from when vocalist Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister used to gamble on fruit machines back in the day. He is reported as saying that he wrote them while sitting in a transit van speeding down the motorway at 90 miles an hour. However they came about, they created one of the best ever songs about gamblers and their passion for betting.

Rambling Gambling Willie – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is one of the greatest contemporary songwriters of our time. He has written about most things in life, including gambling, and his song, ‘Rambling Gambling Willie,’ is one of those songs about gambling luck, which, of course, nearly always eventually runs out. 

Willie is a drifter who roams from town to town scooping the pot at poker tables. During his travels, he manages to father 27 children, each with a different woman. He believes that he is living the dream until one day, the inevitable happens, and his luck runs out. He met the wrong guy, and when Willie beat him, his vanquished opponent shot poor Willie in the head. It gets summed up in the last verse: 

So all you roving gamblers, wherever you might be,

The moral of the story is very plain to see

Make your money while you can, before you have to stop

For when you pull that dead man’s hand, your gambling days are up.

As fans of music for gamblers will probably know, the ‘dead man’s hand’ referred to in the song are Aces and 8s. It’s the hand that Wild Bill Hickock was holding back in 1876 when Jack McCall shot him in the back of the head, presumably the event that triggered the inspiration of Dylan’s song. 

A Good Run Of Bad Luck – Clint Black 

Country songs about gamblers don’t come any better than ‘A Good Run of Bad Luck’ by Clint Black. It’s classic country western, a timeless classic if you’re into the genre, complete with harmonica, slide guitar, piano, a fiddle, and a great vocal. For gambling and country western fans, there’s also a fine video to come with it. 

The video was directed by Clint himself and depicts him and his band playing the song on a floor strewn with playing cards. ‘A Good Run of Bad Luck’ was the fourth single release from Black’s ‘No Time to Kill’ album, and it also featured in the Maverick movie released in 1994, starring Mel Gibson, James Garner, and Jodi Foster. The legendary Maverick has to feature somewhere in songs about casinos and card sharks, so we just had to put this one in. Gibson plays the role of Brett Maverick, a card player and con man, a role originally played by Garner in the TV show that aired in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 

There are plenty of gambling references throughout the song, including, the chips are down, seven come eleven, luck be a lady. The song could have been written specially for the film. It probably was. Anyway, it’s a great fit.

Tumbling Dice – The Rolling Stones

We can’t let country have all of the coverage. We need to make way for some R&B songs about gamblers, too, and what better way to do that than with the legendary Rolling Stones?

They recorded and released ‘Tumbling Dice’ in 1972 as a track on their album ‘Exile on Main Street’ in 1972. It’s a typical bluesy rhythm piece by Mick Jagger and the boys with its gambling and infidelity theme. It charted at number five in the UK and number 7 in the States. The words recount the tale of a gambler who falls foul of infidelity, and it reflects the temptations to play it straight but to also venture off the straight and narrow. 

The lyrics were influenced by Jagger’s conversation with a housekeeper on the subject of gambling in Los Angeles. She liked to play dice, and Jagger, who didn’t know much about Craps, used the information he gleaned to complete the song with expressions like ‘I’m the lone crap shooter,’ ‘the deuce is still wild,’ and ‘I’m the lone crap shooter playin’ the field every night.’

The Card Cheat – The Clash

This little gem among songs about gamblers is well worth a listen. ‘The Card Cheat’ is a rather dark tale about a man who cheats at gambling. The sombre words include:

To the opium den and the barroom gin,

In the Belmont chair, playing violins,

The gambler’s face cracks into a grin

As he lays down the king of spades.

But the dealer just stares,

There’s something wrong here, he thinks,

The gambler is seized and forced to his knees,

And shot dead

This piece of music for gamblers can be found on the Clash’s iconic 1979 album ‘London Calling.’ It’s a simple and moving narrative that takes a look at the tragic end met by a gambler who played and cheated on one too many hands.

Looking past this ballad of a lone gambler, ‘The Card Cheat’ is a sort of parable that reflects on the void within many people, not just gamblers, and their desperate efforts to fill it. The song, with its heavy, sad tones, suggests that many people struggle with both the world and themselves, often hoping for just a little more time to sort themselves out.

It’s admittedly pretty heavy stuff, so for our last dip into songs about gamblers, let’s lighten the mood a little.

The Jack – AC/DC

To understand the innuendos in what is now one of the classic rock songs about gamblers and mechanics of poker, you need to know that in Australia (from where the band originate), the Jack is a nickname for the venereal disease, gonorrhoea. The story is that the band were staying in a house with a bunch of very friendly ladies, and they all ended up with a dose. It brings a whole new meaning to the words, which include:

She gave me the queen,

She gave me the king,

She was wheelin’ and dealin’,

Just doin’ her thing,

She was holdin’ a pair,

But I had to try,

Her deuce was wild,

But my ace was high,

But how was I to know?

When AC/DC played the song in concert, band member Angus Young would often share a more direct set of lyrics with the audience than the ones on the original recording. He was known to introduce the song by singing:

‘Gonorrhoea, I’ve just had my first dose of gonorrhoea.’ to the tune of “Maria” from the musical West Side Story.

Talk about songs with gambling luck – bad luck that is! But, you have to admit, ot does have its funny side.

Conclusion

We hope you’ve enjoyed our little round-up of songs about gamblers and that you followed some of the links and had a listen, too. The parallels that can be drawn between gambling and love and relationships are just too much to resist for many artists, but we hope you’ll agree that they end up enriching our understanding of gambling, even though, in most instances, the main protagonists come to a sticky end one way or another. 

But don’t let these songs about gambling luck put you off. Gambling can be great fun, just as long as you remember to always gamble responsibly.