"Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" is a 1973 song written and first recorded by American singer-songwriter Linda Laurie. It was famously covered by Australian-American singer

Helen Reddy Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a show business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on ra ...

several months later; Reddy's cover was a million-selling, Gold-certified

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

. Laurie recorded "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" for

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc. established in 1972, though MCA had released recordings under that name in the UK from the 1960s. The label achieved success in the 1970s through the 1980s, often by acquiring other ...

in the summer of 1973. The song was shopped to Helen Reddy who recorded it for her '' Long Hard Climb'' album which was released August 1973, and the track was issued as a single that October.

Helen Reddy version

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

issued "Leave Me Alone" as the follow-up single to Reddy's No. 1 hit "

Delta Dawn "Delta Dawn" is a song written by musician Larry Collins and country songwriter Alex Harvey. The first notable recording of the song was in 1971 by American singer and actress Bette Midler for her debut album '' The Divine Miss M''. However i ...

" despite the misgivings of Reddy herself who felt "Leave Me Alone" was a thematic retread of "Delta Dawn" as both songs concern a Southern woman - alliteratively named - whose reason has been undermined by an ill-fated tryst. As well, Reddy found the song's chorus with its repetition of the phrase "leave me alone" monotonous. Capitol Records was correct in believing the resemblance to Reddy's precedent hit would work in "Leave Me Alone"'s favor as the song reached the American Top Ten chart six weeks after its single release. It hit No.1 in ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' and rose to No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100,''Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990'' - making ''Long Hard Climb'' the only one of Reddy's albums to feature two Top Ten songs. "Leave Me Alone" became Reddy's third US single release to be certified

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

for sales of over one million units and was also the second of Reddy's six consecutive No. 1 songs on the ''Billboard'' Easy Listening Chart. She would eventually score eight No.1 Billboard Easy Listening/Adult Contemporary songs overall. In Australia, "Leave Me Alone" followed "Delta Dawn" as Reddy's second consecutive - and final - No. 1 ranked song, topping the charts dated 7 & 14 January 1974. "Leave Me Alone" was the first Helen Reddy single to build momentum in the UK with six weeks in February and March 1974 spent approaching the UK Top 50; however the single ultimately failed to reach the chart. The song was the subject of a nationwide contest in America in which listeners would submit to their local radio station their estimation of how many times Reddy sang the phrase "leave me alone" in the song; submissions of the correct answer - which Reddy states is 43 - were eligible for a trip for two to see Helen in concert. Reddy sang this song as a skit on ''

The Carol Burnett Show ''The Carol Burnett Show'' is an American variety/sketch comedy television show that originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 279 episodes, and again with nine episodes in fall 1991. It starred Carol Burnett, Harv ...

'', with the show's cast (

Vicki Lawrence Vicki Lawrence (born Vicki Ann Axelrad, March 26, 1949), sometimes credited as Vicki Lawrence Schultz, is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She is best known for her character Thelma Harper, Mama (Thelma Harper). Lawrence also originate ...

Harvey Korman Harvey Herschel Korman (February 15, 1927May 29, 2008) was an American actor and comedian who performed in television and film productions. He is best remembered as a main cast member alongside Carol Burnett, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence on the ...

, and

Tim Conway Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway (December 15, 1933 – May 14, 2019) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and director. Conway is perhaps best known as a regular cast member (1975–1978) on the TV comedy ''The Carol Burnett Show'' where he port ...

) singing the chorus, which gets interrupted by Reddy, who tells the guests that they all sounded "TERRIBLE". When Reddy came out of retirement in 2013, playing US club dates with an act focused on songs she'd recorded which were not released as singles, she cited "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" as "one song I will never ever sing again" disparaging its lyrical repetitiveness: "that sort of songwriting doesn’t do much for me, but it was a hit. However, I don’t have to sing it anymore if I don’t want to, and I don’t want to."

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Other covers

Country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist Arlene Harden covered "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" in a

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

session produced by Frank Jones on 10 May 1974 with the track serving as her debut release on Capitol Records that June; it fell short of hit status with a No. 72 peak on the ''Billboard'' C&W chart in August 1974.

Samantha Sang Cheryl Lau Sang (born 5 August 1951), known professionally as Samantha Sang, is an Australian singer. She had an earlier career as a teenage singer under the stage name Cheryl Gray, before adopting the stage name she is more widely known as in ...

recorded "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" for her 1975 debut album ''Samantha Sang and Rocked the World''.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1973 songs 1973 singles Helen Reddy songs Cashbox number-one singles Number-one singles in Australia Capitol Records singles Songs about loneliness