Ruby TUESDAY Afternoon

Songs for Each Day of the Week: Day 3

Alright, so it's Tuesday, and oh boy, you're in for a real treat with two classic songs! First up, it's The Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday," a double A-side single (backed with "Let's Spend the Night Together") that reached #1 on the U.S. charts after its January 1967 release. Written by guitarist Keith Richards about his girlfriend in the mid-1960's, this is another great tune included in the list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The talented Brian Jones played the recorder and piano, and the double bass was actually played jointly by bassist Bill Wyman and Keith Richards, with Wyman pressing the strings against the fingerboard and Richards bowing the strings. And in case you were wondering, yes, this song's title was the source of the restaurant chain of the same name. Here are the great Stones performing on The Ed Sullivan Show.

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The other classic song of the day is "Tuesday Afternoon" by the English symphonic rock band The Moody Blues. Initially titled "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)" and presented in two parts on their 1967 album Days of Future Passed, this dream pop/psychedelic pop song was edited down and re-released as the single "Tuesday Afternoon" in July of 1968. Featuring (the beautiful) Justin Hayward on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, he wrote this song while sitting in a field near his home in England one spring afternoon, and this song just came to him as he strummed his guitar. The backing melody comes from the mellotron (an early synthesized keyboard), played by Mike Pinder, and the short flute solo at the end is played by member Ray Thomas. Inspired by The Beatles' use of classical instrumentation, the album version of this song ends with a final orchestral rendition of the chorus, played by the London Festival Orchestra. Although this performance is not without its pitch problems as it is not an easy song to perform live, there's still something special about seeing this classic footage of the "Moodies."