Thursday 21 March 2013

My Top Ten Ruby Songs


Ten rubies on wax cylinder...


10. The Osborne Brothers - Ruby (Are You Mad?)

Featuring some mighty fine banjo picking.

9. Marty Robbins - Ruby Ann

Ain't true love a funny thing?

8. Foster The People - Ruby

 An early FTP track, from before their pumped-up success, released as part of Record Store Day 2012.

7. Bic Runga - Ruby Nights

A haunting story of lost love from the New Zealand chanteuse.

6. Foxboro Hot Tubs - Ruby Room

A Green Day side-project that sounds suspiciously like... Green Day. Nothing wrong with that.

5. Tom Waits - Ruby's Arms

Tom does a Bill Bixby...

The only thing I'm taking is the scarf off of your clothesline
I'll hurry past your chest of drawers
And your broken wind chimes as I say goodbye
I'll say goodbye, say goodbye to Ruby's arms...
4. Donald Fagen - Ruby Baby

From the amazing album 'The Nightfly', the best thing to come out of Steely Dan breaking up in the 80s. 

3. Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby

The Leeds' lads biggest hit: it seems so long ago. I saw Ricky Wilson in the remake of Jeff Wayne's War of the World stage show just before Christmas. He was the best thing in it... except for Liam Neeson (via hologram) and Jason Donovan. Marty Pellow was awful though.

2. The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday

I know, I know. You really thought this would be Number One, didn't you? It's a lovely song. There's no denying that. But it doesn't quite do it for me like...

1. Kenny Rogers & The First Edition - Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town

Back from Vietnam, a paralyzed vet finds it hard to readjust to home life... especially when his wife is finding solace in the arms of other men.

Those of you who don't find this heartbreaking: check you've still got one to break.

Originally recorded by Johnny Darrell. Also memorably covered by (among others) The Killers, Carl Perkins, Cake and Leonard Nimoy. Yes, I said Leonard Nimoy




Those were my Top Ten Rubies... which sparkles brightest for you?

41 comments:

  1. Kenny Rogers ahead of The Rolling Stones? That's brave indeed...

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    Replies
    1. I like to live dangerously.

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    2. Hi my name is ruby..finally the Oscar winning music composer AR RAHMAN of slum dog millionaire fame has finally composed a song Ruby in hindi.

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    3. Hi my name is ruby..finally the Oscar winning music composer AR RAHMAN of slum dog millionaire fame has finally composed a song Ruby in hindi.

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    4. Hi my name is ruby..finally the Oscar winning music composer AR RAHMAN of slum dog millionaire fame has finally composed a song Ruby in hindi.

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  2. The Wonderstuff - Ruby Horse.

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  3. "See Ruby Fall" - Johnny Cash. Its such a goodie!!

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    Replies
    1. It is... though sadly, it wasn't in my Johnny Cash collection. That will be remedied very soon. Thanks, Sag.

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  4. there was a song from the 1950's titled "Ruby". Does anyone know who made it popular back then?

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    Replies
    1. That might be Ruby Baby by Dion & The Belmonts?

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    2. Dion sang the song in 1963. My name is Ruby and that song was on the jukeboxes all over town. My fiance would play that song every time we went out. We were planning our wedding just 2 weeks after our first date and were married 2 weeks later. For him to play that song so much made me feel really loved. We have been married for 57 years.

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    3. Thank you for that. All the best to you and your husband.

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  5. Dion and the Belmonts sang more upbeat songs. Ruby was a slow dancing song..kinda lol

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  6. I just found out who made the record It was Ray Charles...here is the link
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ehcku2-0MU

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    Replies
    1. Cool - glad you found it.

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    2. me too because it would bother me until I found out who I meant lol

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  7. Replies
    1. That's the song that I'm listening to right now

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  8. I came looking for 'Ruby' songs as I just had a granddaughter named Ruby. :) A couple of such songs I was familiar with before my lookup were "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" by Helen Ready and "Ravishing Ruby" by Tom T. Hall. Also, the 'Ruby' mentioned by Sheila above was the theme song to the 1952 movie 'Ruby Gentry' starring Charlton Heston and Karl Maldon.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. Congratulations on the new addition to your family.

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  9. I'm totally digging the Ruby list! My name is Ruby and Dad named me while he was drunk driving Mom to the ER in labor with me. He named me after the song on the radio, "Rueben James". I'm a girl so I became Ruby Jane. Love it! Made my night!

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    Replies
    1. Great story. Glad you liked the list.

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    2. My 2 month old is Ruby Jane and I'm looking for a song to learn to sing to her :)

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    3. Hope you found one that suits!

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  10. my favorite ruby song is by dirty looks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzX5r3nNIFU

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  11. My name is Ruby. I was named after my Dad, whose name was Rubin. Also, my mom had a friend named Ruby when she was a kid.

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    Replies
    1. Good to hear from you, Ruby. Hope you liked some of the songs.

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  12. I loved them! Have you heard Bjork's version of Ruby Baby? Its fantastic!!! You must hear it. I would like to know what you think about it.

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  13. My name is Ruby and this was published on my birthday. Coincidence? Probably.

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  14. "Ruby Blue" Sleeping at Last - Covers vol1 and Ruby's Shoes Lori McKenna. Thanks for your post it is our Ruby Anniversary tomorrow. Jon

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  15. I've just got anew granddaughter named Ruby Jane is there any songs with that name

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    Replies
    1. Had a look, but couldn't find anything. Sorry.

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  16. Love this! My daughter Ruby is getting married this year and I happen to wonder how many Ruby songs there were. I had no clue! This is going to be a great help. Thanks everyone!

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  17. In 1963 Dion sang the song. It was on the jukeboxes all over town. On our first date my husband to be played that song for me. It made me feel loved. So 2 weeks later we were planning our wedding and 2 weeks after that we were married. For 57 years he has been singing that song to me.

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  18. My name is Ruby and just a couple of days ago I thought I would look to see how many songs had Ruby in them. There are quite a few. My middle name is Irene and my daddy used to sing the song Goodnight Irene to me. I never knew there was a rebuttal to the song but I found one. It is titled Wake up Irene.

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  19. Marc Almond - Ruby Red. Give it a listen, its brilliant! Love your top 10.

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