"Ruby" is a song by English

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Kaiser Chiefs Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who formed in 2000 as Parva, releasing one studio album, ''22'', in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their current name that same year. Since their formation the band h ...

. It was released in the United Kingdom on 5 February 2007 as the lead single from their second studio album, ''

Yours Truly, Angry Mob ''Yours Truly, Angry Mob'' is the second album by English rock band Kaiser Chiefs. It was released on 23 February 2007 in Belgium and the Netherlands, 26 February 2007 in the rest of the world by B-Unique Records and in March in North America b ...

'' (2007). It became the band's first British number-one single on 25 February 2007 and ended 2007 as the year's 10th-biggest-selling single in the UK, with total sales of 313,765. As of September 2016, it has sold over 600,000 copies in the UK as stated by the

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...

. "Ruby" was voted number 13 on the

Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music listener poll hosted by the publicly-funded, national Australian youth radio station, Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Australian and alternative music of the ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, Australia's largest annual music poll. A video single of the song was released in the United States at

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

stores on 13 March 2007, two weeks before the album was released there, and featured a live version of "

Everything Is Average Nowadays "Everything Is Average Nowadays" is a song by England, English Rock music, rock Musical ensemble, band Kaiser Chiefs and is the ninth track on their second album, ''Yours Truly, Angry Mob''. The song was released as the second single (music), si ...

" and the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

"Admire You" (released on the UK 7-inch version). Speaking about the song lead singer Ricky Wilson said about Ruby "she is super cool, totally unapproachable” and that “there was a girl like that at school”. In an interview with contactmusic.com guitarist Andrew White said “it’s not really about anyone” and “if you know someone called Ruby, it’s about them”. In a 2022 TikTok video,

Nick Hodgson Nicholas James David Hodgson (born 20 October 1977) is an English drummer, backing vocalist, and songwriter, formerly of the indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs. Early life He attended St. Mary's Menston with Nick Baines and Simon Rix. He then wen ...

later revealed that Ruby was his family pet, a black Labrador.

Music video

The promo for "Ruby" was directed by Swedish production company Stylewar, who also produced the 2005 video for " I Predict a Riot", and features the band performing in a desert landscape whilst a CGI metropolis-like miniature city builds around them. The video was scheduled to be shown on Channel 4 at 11:35 p.m. on 15 January 2007 but was pulled from the schedules for unknown reasons. The video finally premiered on the official Kaiser Chiefs website four days later.

Track listings

* UK 7-inch ruby-red vinyl single :A. "Ruby" :B. "Admire You" * UK and Irish CD single, digital download # "Ruby" – 3:24 # "From the Neck Down" – 2:29 * Best Buy video single # "Everything Is Average Nowadays" (live) # "Admire You" # "Ruby" (video) * European enhanced CD single # "Ruby" # "From the Neck Down" # "Admire You" # "Ruby" (video)

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Notable cover versions

On 19 January 2011, Italian band Elio e le Storie Tese played a cover version of the song at the nationwide TV-show ''Parla con Me'', with lyrics changed into a satiric reference to the

Rubygate Silvio Berlusconi, then the Prime Minister of Italy, was accused and initially formally convicted of paying 17-year-old Moroccan Karima El Mahroug, also known by the stage name Ruby Rubacuori (Italian for "Ruby the Heartstealer"), for sexual se ...

sex scandal, which then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had just been involved with.

References

{{Authority control Kaiser Chiefs songs 2006 songs 2007 singles B-Unique Records singles British power pop songs European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Number-one singles in the Czech Republic Number-one singles in Scotland Polydor Records singles Song recordings produced by Stephen Street Songs written by Andrew White (musician) Songs written by Nick "Peanut" Baines Songs written by Nick Hodgson Songs written by Ricky Wilson (British musician) Songs written by Simon Rix UK Singles Chart number-one singles Universal Motown Records singles