About The Song
“Scarlet Fever” is a 1983 single by Kenny Rogers, written by Georgia songwriter Mike Dekle. The track was released by Liberty Records in June 1983 as the third single from Rogers’ fourteenth studio album, We’ve Got Tonight. On the LP it appears on side one, directly after the title track. Single and discography listings give a running time of about 3:56, with “What I Learned from Loving You” on the B-side. The performance is credited simply to Kenny Rogers, with Rogers himself listed as producer.
The parent album We’ve Got Tonight had been issued earlier in the year, on 11 February 1983, and became Rogers’ final studio set for Liberty before he moved to RCA. Recorded at Lion Share in Los Angeles and Creative Workshop and Hitsville U.S.A. in Nashville and L.A., the album mixed country and adult-contemporary material and featured multiple producers, including Rogers, Lionel Richie, David Foster, Brent Maher, Randy Goodrum and James Carmichael. It produced three singles: the duet “We’ve Got Tonight” with Sheena Easton, “All My Life” and “Scarlet Fever.” The album reached No. 3 on the U.S. country albums chart and No. 18 on the Billboard 200, later earning platinum certification.
As a single, “Scarlet Fever” continued the album campaign through mid-1983. Liberty issued it in the U.S. under catalogue number B-1503, coupling it with “What I Learned from Loving You,” a James Carmichael–produced track from the same album. Discogs notes that the A-side was mixed by Humberto Gatica, a prominent engineer associated with many early-1980s pop and adult-contemporary records. While most of the album tracks carried a modern country-pop sound, “Scarlet Fever” leans toward a narrative ballad style that fits squarely within Rogers’ country storytelling tradition.
On the U.S. charts, the record performed best in the country field. Billboard-based summaries show “Scarlet Fever” peaking at No. 5 on the Hot Country Singles chart, giving Rogers another Top 5 entry in 1983. It also appeared on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached No. 94 and stayed for two weeks, and chart databases such as MusicVF rank it among his lower-placed but still notable pop entries of the period. In Canada the single climbed to No. 4 on the RPM Country Tracks chart. Compared with the larger crossover success of “We’ve Got Tonight,” its performance was more modest, but it maintained Rogers’ presence on country radio between that duet and the later worldwide hit “Islands in the Stream.”
The song’s lyric tells the story of a man who becomes fixated on a dancer named Scarlet at a nightclub. Descriptions emphasize that she is a 16-year-old performer on the club’s stage, and the narrator watches her regularly from the audience, imagining that one day she will notice him and fall in love. He never actually approaches her; instead, he builds an idealized picture of her in his mind. One night he arrives at the club to find that Scarlet is gone, having left the job without a word. The narrator admits that he knew she was never really interested in him and calls himself a fool for still feeling the effects of “scarlet fever” long after she has disappeared.
Musically, “Scarlet Fever” fits within Rogers’ early-1980s country-pop style but keeps the focus on the narrative. The arrangement uses a steady mid-tempo rhythm with drums, bass, keyboards and guitar, leaving space for Rogers’ vocal phrasing to carry the story. Compared with some of the more heavily produced tracks on We’ve Got Tonight, it is relatively restrained: there are no extended instrumental breaks, and the backing parts are arranged to support the verses and choruses rather than to dominate them. This approach mirrors other Rogers singles of the era, where the emphasis falls on clear storytelling and a smooth, conversational lead vocal.
Within Kenny Rogers’ catalogue, “Scarlet Fever” is often classed as a deep cut or a secondary hit rather than a signature song, but it continues to appear on compilations and themed playlists. Streaming services list it on collections like “Kenny Rogers Essentials” and on era-specific country-hits sets for 1983, keeping it accessible alongside better-known titles such as “The Gambler,” “Coward of the County” and “We’ve Got Tonight.” For listeners exploring Rogers’ work from the early 1980s, the track offers a clear example of his move toward more polished country-pop production while maintaining a strong focus on narrative lyrics and character-driven songs.
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Lyric
I stood outside the Lucky Star
Staring at the flashing sign
It read: come on in and watch young
Scarlet’s body come alive
Let her dance for you and cast her spell
You’ll swear you can believe her
Be careful not to catch the scarlet feverSo I paid my fare and walked down front
And found an empty chair
As I settled in young scarlet took the ribbons from her hair
The moves her body made while the music played
Were the likes I’ve never seen
And she became the envy of my dreamsOne by one her teasing movements
Brought the crowd out of their seats
And all at once young scarlet
Danced straight up in front of me
From the moment that her eyes found mine
I’ve never been the same
Scarlet locked another heart upon her chainNow I get scarlet fever every time I see her
But she’s a night club teaser
Not paid to notice me
Yes, I get scarlet fever
If she knew how much I need her
She’d place her hand in my hand
And dance away with meShe looked 25 but I was told
That she was just 16
She had a way of making a man believe
She danced for only him
As she tantalized I fantasized
And felt the sound of my heart beat
And every night I’d dream
She’d fall in love with meThen one night while driving in
My eyes begun to tear
‘Cause the sign outside the Lucky Star
Said: scarlet isn’t here
She’d left that day to find a life
Of bigger and better things
And she left behind my chain of broken dreamsBut still get scarlet fever
In my mind I still see her
Out there dancing somewhere
To another fool like me
Yes, I get scarlet fever every time I see her
But she’s a night club teaser
Not paid to notice me
Yes, I get scarlet fever
If she knew how much I need her
She’d place her hand in my hand
And dance away with me…