Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, until 1970 billed as the First Edition, were an American rock band. The band's style was difficult to singularly classify, as it incorporated elements of country, rock and psychedelic pop. Its stalwart members were Kenny Rogers, Mickey Jones and Terry Williams. The band formed in 1967, with folk musician Mike Settle and the operatically trained Thelma Camacho completing the lineup.
As the counterculture of the 1960s was developing, the First Edition signed with Reprise Records in 1967 and had their first big hit in early 1968 with the psychedelic single "Just Dropped In". After other chart hits, "But You Know I Love You" and "Tell It All Brother", the group, newly billed as "Kenny Rogers and the First Edition", once again hit the top ten, this time in 1969 with the topical "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town".
For the next six years, the First Edition enjoyed worldwide success. By the mid-1970s, frontman Kenny Rogers had embarked on a solo music career, becoming one of the top-selling country artists of all time.