(18th February 1955)
Ruby’s real contribution to British pop culture is as rhyming slang for the national dish, ironic when you hear this spiceless outing, arranged as primly as it is sung. Murray’s pert and precise enunciation helps kill off a pleasant but treacly tune: her slightly odd accent the only mild interest in a modest two minutes. 4
Written by Tom on Monday, September 29th, 2003 | 767 views |
The UK's 1000+ Number One Hits since 1952, reviewed, in order, irregularly, for as long as I can bear to keep doing it. A history of pop in the shape of a chart.
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Tom invented Freaky Trigger on a bus journey in the mid-90s. Typically, it took him 5 years to do anything about it. He also runs a marketing blog - blackbeardblog.com - and writes about pop music for whoever wants it.
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FT's rosie on May 26th, 2008
This is another one I first heard in a version by Kathy Kirby, I think. I haven’t anything else to say. It’s pleasant but unexciting and it’s hard to imagine it with extra chilli.
wichita lineman on May 31st, 2008
Mild, comforting, a chicken korma of a single. Ruby’s incredible 1955 (7 Top 10 hits, 85 weeks in the chart) is hard to explain - no previous form, and only three lesser hits and one week in the Top 10 afterwards. Five hits in the Top 20 in March ‘55… she could’ve bigger than the Beatles. Wait a minute, she was!
The following year this Northern Irish superstar made the logical step up to the silver screen, when she starred with Dennis Price and Frankie Howerd in A Touch of the Sun. Anyone seen it?
Another singer who hit the bottle, unfortunately.