| "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Johnny Darrell | ||||
| from the album Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town | ||||
| B-side | "The Little Things I Love"[1] | |||
| Format | 7" single | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Label | United Artists | |||
| Writer(s) | Mel Tillis | |||
| Johnny Darrell singles chronology | ||||
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| "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cover of the 1969 single |
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| Single by Kenny Rogers and The First Edition | ||||
| from the album Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town | ||||
| Released | 1969 | |||
| Genre | Country, pop | |||
| Length | 2:53 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Writer(s) | Mel Tillis | |||
| Kenny Rogers and The First Edition singles chronology | ||||
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"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" is a song written by Mel Tillis. The song was made famous by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition in 1969. "Ruby" was originally recorded in 1967 by Johnny Darrell, who scored a number nine country hit with it that year.[1]
Contents |
| Chart (1967) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 9 |
| UK Singles Chart | 2[2] |
In 1969, after Kenny Rogers and the First Edition's success with the hits "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" and "But You Know I Love You", Rogers wanted to take his group more into a country music direction. They recorded their version of the song (with Rogers singing the lead) in one take. The record was a major hit for them. It made #1 in the UK on the New Musical Express (#2 on the BBC chart) staying in the top twenty for 15 weeks and selling over a million copies by the end of 1970. In the United States it reached number six on the Hot 100 and number thirty-nine on the country chart[3] and also sold more than 1 million copies by 1979. Worldwide, the single sold more than 7 million copies.
In 1977, now a solo act following the First Edition's split in early-1976, Rogers made re-recordings of this and a number of other First Edition hits for his 1977 greatest hits package Ten Years Of Gold (later issued in the British Isles as The Kenny Rogers Singles Album), which topped the US country charts and was just as successful in the United Kingdom.
| Chart (1969) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 6 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | 6 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 39 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 4 |
| Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 2 |
| UK Singles Chart | 2 |
| Dutch Top 40 | 4 |
| Norway Singles Chart | 9 |
| Austrian Top 40 | 26 |
The song has been recorded many times by various artists. The Statler Brothers had perhaps the first cover in 1967 on their album, Big Country Hits. Other artists who have recorded versions cover the modern pop-music gamut, including Roger Miller, Bobby Bare, Dale Hawkins, Carl Perkins, Cake, Leonard Nimoy, Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, Sort Sol, The Killers (as the b-side to "Smile Like You Mean It") and Right Said Fred.
Several foreign-language versions have been recorded: Greek singer Nana Mouskouri recorded a French version entitled "Ruby, garde ton cœur ici" for her 1970 album Dans le soleil et dans le vent; Pavel Bobek, Czech country singer, recorded "Oh Ruby, nechtěj mi lásku brát" in 1981; Gary Holton and Casino Steel's English-language version was a number one hit in Norway at the beginning of 1982.
An answer song, "Billy, I've Got To Go To Town," was released in 1969 by Geraldine Stevens who had previously recorded successfully under the name Dodie Stevens. Sung to the same melody with an arrangement quite similar to the First Edition version, "Billy" peaked at #117 pop, #57 country.