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Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs song)

song by English rock band Kaiser Chiefs

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ595623 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Ruby" is a song by English indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs. It was released in the United States on 29 January 2007 and the United Kingdom on 5 February as the lead single from their second studio album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob (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 July 2026, it has sold over 1,800,000 copies in the UK as stated by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). In the US, it charted at number seven the Billboard Triple A chart, becoming the band's highest-charting hit in the US. "Ruby" was voted number 13 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2007, Australia's largest annual music poll.

A video single of the song was released in the US at Best Buy stores on 13 March 2007, two weeks before the album was released there, and featured a live version of "Everything Is Average Nowadays" and the B-side "Admire You" (released on the UK 7-inch version).

Content

Speaking about the song lead singer Ricky Wilson said that Ruby "is super cool, totally unapproachable" and that "there was a girl like that at school". Guitarist Andrew White said, "[I]t's not really about anyone" and "if you know someone called Ruby, it's about them". In a 2022 TikTok video, former drummer and the song's backing vocalist and co-writer Nick Hodgson revealed that the song was about his family pet, a black Labrador named Ruby.

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 later the video for its follow-up "Everything Is Average Nowadays", and features the band performing in a desert landscape whilst a CGI metropolis-like miniature city builds around them.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs song)” as song by English rock band Kaiser Chiefs. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ruby, Kaiser and Chiefs.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2007, 2026, 2022, 2005—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2007-02-05. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Ruby, Kaiser and Chiefs providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs song)”, the useful work is to connect “song by English rock band Kaiser Chiefs” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q595623. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2007, 2026, 2022 and 2005.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs song)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs song) primary sources, Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs song) archive and Ruby research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs song)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.