Top Ten Ruby Songs: Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town (#8)

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W H A T is that white stuff on the ground out there???? Actually, this is the way to have sn*w. It was in the 60s yesterday, so this isn’t going to hang around very long. It’ll be gone long before this list of songs with “Ruby” in the title will be! Here’s today’s “captain obvious” song. #8: Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town - Kenny Rogers & the First Edition When I announced this there were two songs that probably popped into your head immediately. Here’s the first one. (The other one is a much better song so it’ll be along higher in the countdown. ) One of those weird things in the world. This is considered by many to be the “definitive” Kenny Rogers & the First Edition song. They were, at the time, considered a “rock band” (note Kenny’s earring in the screen grab). And this song was a pop top ten, while struggling to hit the country top 40. And yet…. Rogers is in the Country Music Hall of Fame. This was also written by a legendary country singer/songwriter (Mel Tillis). And, if you remember one of my “songs you might not know were covers” countdowns a couple of years ago, this was originally recorded by Waylon Jennings, then a hit for Johnny Darrell. The tale of a paralyzed, impotent veteran (the implication is the Vietnam War, although Tillis said it was actually World War II he was thinking of) who knows his wife his stepping out on his became one of the legendary songs for Rogers (in either rock or country, or whatever you call what he was doing in the 70s and 80s) and Tillis. Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town Written by Mel Tillis Recorded by Kenny Rogers & the First Edition From Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town, 1969 I just heard the slamming of the door: