Kenny Rogers & The First Edition – Ruby, Dont Take Your Love To Town

“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” Single by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition from the album Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town
B-side “Girl Get Ahold Of Yourself”
Released 1969
Label Reprise
Songwriter Mel Tillis
Producer Jimmy Bowen
Charted No.6 in US (Billboard HOT 100); No.39 in US (Billboard Hot Country Singles); No.4 in Canada; No.2 in UK; No.26 in Austria

Country star Mel Tillis wrote this song, which tells the story of a wounded soldier who has returned home to a woman who shows him little sympathy, leaving him to go out at night and enjoy the company of other men. All he can do is beg her to stay home and keep him company, but his pleas fall on deaf ears.

Tillis based the song on a couple who lived near his family in Florida. In real life, the man was wounded in Germany in World War II and sent to recuperate in England. There, he married a nurse who took care of him at the hospital. The two of them moved to Florida shortly afterward, but he made periodic return trips to the hospital as problems with his wounds kept flaring up. His wife saw another man as the veteran lay in the hospital.

Kenny Rogers and the First Edition enjoyed success with the hits “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” and “But You Know I Love You,” and Rogers wanted to take his group more into a country music direction in 1969. They recorded their version of the song in a single take in June 1968, with Kenny Rogers singing the lead. Rogers version ends with his spoken plea: “For God’s sake, turn around”. The record became an international hit for them in 1969, reaching number two in the UK Singles Chart and staying in the top ten for 12 weeks. In the United States, it reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 39 on the country chart.