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?
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41 comments:

  1. Nota Bene21 March 2013 at 12:49

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

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    1. Rol21 March 2013 at 12:57

      I like to live dangerously.

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    2. Unknown22 June 2018 at 15:31

      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. Unknown22 June 2018 at 15:34

      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.

      Delete
    4. Unknown22 June 2018 at 15:35

      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.

      Delete
  2. Steve21 March 2013 at 19:59

    The Wonderstuff - Ruby Horse.

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  3. The Sagittarian21 March 2013 at 20:25

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

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    1. Rol21 March 2013 at 20:54

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

      Delete
  4. Unknown29 May 2015 at 18:50

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

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    1. Rol29 May 2015 at 20:52

      That might be Ruby Baby by Dion & The Belmonts?

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    2. Unknown21 March 2021 at 20:27

      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. Rol21 March 2021 at 21:16

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

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  5. Unknown29 May 2015 at 20:58

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

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  6. Unknown29 May 2015 at 22:02

    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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    1. Rol31 May 2015 at 15:55

      Cool - glad you found it.

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    2. Unknown4 December 2015 at 17:12

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

      Delete
  7. Ben26 January 2016 at 19:25

    Ruby SoHo - Rancid??

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    1. Unknown18 March 2016 at 04:06

      That's the song that I'm listening to right now

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  8. Unknown31 March 2016 at 20:39

    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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    1. Rol1 April 2016 at 11:48

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

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  9. Unknown17 July 2016 at 01:38

    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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    1. Unknown2 November 2016 at 01:29

      I love it.

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    2. Rol2 November 2016 at 21:02

      Great story. Glad you liked the list.

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    3. Ames17 February 2017 at 19:47

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

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    4. Rol17 February 2017 at 21:23

      Hope you found one that suits!

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  10. Unknown17 August 2016 at 14:25

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

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  11. Unknown2 November 2016 at 01:28

    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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    1. Rol2 November 2016 at 21:03

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

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  12. Unknown8 November 2016 at 18:12

    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. Unknown10 November 2016 at 00:24

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

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  14. Unknown26 August 2017 at 18:44

    "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. Unknown16 November 2017 at 02:56

    ❤

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  16. Unknown24 August 2018 at 00:47

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

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    1. Rol24 August 2018 at 21:56

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

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  17. Unknown27 February 2020 at 10:11

    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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  18. Unknown21 March 2021 at 20:45

    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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  19. Unknown25 March 2021 at 00:32

    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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  20. Unknown4 April 2021 at 12:06

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

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