https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/9340231/kenny-rogers-dolly-parton-islands-in-the-stream-forever-no-1
Released in summer 1983, the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton duet "Islands in the Stream" is the kind of easy, breezy pop song that's the platonic ideal of adult contemporary. Anchored by a laid-back tempo, open-hearted vocals, and lush orchestration -- a mellow latticework comprising sparkling keyboards, rakish horns, and string swells -- the song became Rogers' second No. 1 hit.
"Islands"-- written by Maurice, Barry and Robin Gibb, a.k.a. the Bee Gees -- is also the perfect soundtrack to a warm-weather fling. The lyrics describe the lightning-bolt feeling of intoxicating love at first sight: "Baby, when I met you there was peace unknown/ I set out to get you with a fine-tooth comb." However, the song's protagonists are in sync with each other's desires. This isn't an unrequited crush, but head-over-heels romance that endures.
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Incredibly enough, however, Parton and Rogers had never collaborated musically before "Islands in the Stream" -- save for Rogers' appearance on a 1976 episode of the variety show Dolly! That fact wasn't lost on Maurice Gibb, as he recalled in The Ultimate Biography Of The Bee Gees: Tales Of The Brothers Gibb. "We imagined Dolly singing the other part on ["Islands in the Stream"], because she was the queen of country, he was the king, [but] they never sang together [before]. So it's a perfect sort of marriage." However, Rogers at first tried to sing the song solo; after four days of trying to nail his vocal part, he was frustrated.
"I finally said, 'Barry [Gibb], I don’t even like this song anymore' and he said, 'You know what we need? We need Dolly Parton,'" Rogers told People in 2017. Incredibly enough, Parton happened to be downstairs from Rogers in the same studio complex, he recalled. "My manager Ken Kragen said, 'I just saw her!' and I said, 'Well, go get her!' He went downstairs and she came marching into the room, and once she came in and started singing the song was never the same. It took on a personality of its own." That spark was evident from the pair's first live performance of the song, which came on the CMA Awards telecast on October 10, 1983.
There's audio of the original recording with the article.
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