“Ruby Tuesday” is a song by the Rolling Stones, released in January 1967. The song became the band’s fourth number-one hit in the United States and reached number three in the United Kingdom as a double A-side with “Let’s Spend the Night Together”. The Rolling Stones recorded “Ruby Tuesday” around November 1966 at Olympic Studios, during the sessions for their album Between the Buttons. The song was produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Brian Jones plays a counter melody on an alto recorder, while the double bass was played jointly by bassist Bill Wyman and guitarist Keith Richards; Wyman did the fingerings while Richards bowed the instrument.
“That’s a wonderful song,” Mick Jagger told Jann Wenner in 1995. “It’s just a nice melody, really. And a lovely lyric. Neither of which I wrote, but I always enjoy singing it.” Wyman states in Rolling with the Stones that the lyrics were completely written by Richards with help from Jones on the musical composition. However, Marianne Faithfull recalls it differently; according to her, Jones presented an early version of this melody to the rest of the Rolling Stones. According to Victor Bockris, Richards came up with the basic track and the words and finished the song with Jones in the studio. Cash Box described the single as a “smooth ballad a la baroque.”
“Ruby Tuesday” was released as the B-side to “Let’s Spend the Night Together” in January 1967. Due to the controversial nature of the A-side’s lyrics, “Ruby Tuesday” earned more airplay and ended up charting higher in the US. The song topped the American Billboard chart, while reaching number three in the UK’s Record Retailer chart, which listed “Let’s Spend The Night Together”/”Ruby Tuesday” as a double A-side.
“Ruby Tuesday” was included on the US version of the 1967 album Between the Buttons, while being left out of the British edition, as was common practice with singles in the UK at that time. That summer, the song appeared on the US compilation album Flowers. Due to its success, the song became a staple of the band’s compilations, being included on Through the Past Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (1969), Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (1971), Rolled Gold (1975), and 30 Greatest Hits (1977), and, in mono, on Singles Collection:The London Years (1989). Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song number 310 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
“Ruby Tuesday” was first played live on Brian Jones’ last concert tour The Rolling Stones European Tour 1967. The next time was on the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour in 1989/1990. A concert rendition from this tour was featured on the band’s 1991 live album Flashpoint and released as a single. This live version was recorded in Japan in 1990 and can be seen on the video release Live at the Tokyo Dome. The B-side was “PlayWith Fire (live)” recorded in 1989 but not included on the Flashpoint album.
