CMT News

Don Schlitz, whose songwriting credits include Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler," will be inducted into the national Songwriters Hall of Fame during ceremonies on June 14 in New York City. This year's inductees also include Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Seger, Jim Steinman and the songwriting team of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones. "The Gambler," Schlitz's first recorded song, won a Grammy for country song of the year in 1978. He and co-writer Paul Overstreet won another Grammy for country song of the year in 1988 for Randy Travis' "Forever and Ever, Amen." Schlitz's other songwriting credits include "On the Other Hand," "I Feel Lucky," "He Thinks He'll Keep Her," "Rockin' With the Rhythm of the Rain," "Deeper Than the Holler" and "When You Say Nothing at All." Lightfoot is best known for hits such as "Early Morning Rain," "Sundown," "If You Could Read My Mind" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," but Marty Robbins scored a No. 1 country hit in 1965 with "Ribbon of Darkness." As a singer-songwriter, Seger's hits include "Against the Wind," "Night Moves," "Hollywood Nights," "Mainstreet" and "Like a Rock." Rogers and Sheena Easton's recording of Seger's "We've Got Tonight" reached No. 1 on the country chart in 1983. Steinman wrote and produced every song on Meat Loaf's 1977 album, Bat Out of Hell, which has sold 44 million copies. Schmidt and Jones, not to be confused with the singer Tom Jones, co-wrote the 1960 Broadway musical, The Fantasticks, which included the classic song "Try to Remember."