(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Fri 2 January 2026 6:00, UK
Things often don’t go to plan within the realm of the music industry; tours get cancelled, bands fall out, and, in the case of The Kinks, what was meant to be a flash-in-the-pan mod rock rebellion ended up becoming one of the greatest and most enduring careers in the history of British rock.
Ray Davies’ songwriting mastery is woven into the very fabric of London’s swinging sixties period, with The Kinks having struck upon some of the most iconic and influential tracks of the era, even after a rather troubled start. 1964 was the year that the musical realm was first introduced to Davies’ work, but audiences did not immediately respond to early singles like ‘Long Tall Sally’ or ‘You Still Want Me’. So, after only two singles, it looked as though the band were going to be dropped from their label, and the music dream would be over.
The tale of the band could easily have panned out that way, were it not for the groundbreaking genius of their third single, ‘You Really Got Me’, which altered the course of rock and roll history forevermore. A short, sharp, and endearingly abrasive anthem rooted in youth and subculture, the track formed the perfect soundtrack for this bold new generation emerging in technicolour from the perpetual grey drizzle of post-war Britain.
Inevitably, ‘You Really Got Me’ quickly went on to top the singles charts, immediately thrusting The Kinks’ into the focal point of the British rock and pop world. In the space of only a few weeks, Davies and the gang had gone from a band on the brink of ultimate failure to high-billing tours, television appearances, and a litany of records flying high in the Hit Parade.
Although the group struggled to recapture the intensity of ‘You Really Got Me’ and its success story, that single did essentially pave the way for the rest of the band’s extensive career, which lasted well into the 1990s before they finally went their separate ways. According to Ray Davies, though, living his life as a legendary rockstar was never the plan.
At the time that The Kinks got together, back in 1962, Davies was studying art at Hornsey College of Art. “Music was just a sideline to keep my grant,” the songwriter admitted to The Aquarian in 2009. “I just wanted to make one hit record and quit. We had that hit [‘You Really Got Me’] and they just kept banging at the door so we had to do more stuff.”
Ever the crowd-pleaser, that legendary hit spurred Davies on to forget his art school origins entirely and focus instead on his clear knack for songwriting. In doing so, he managed to expand upon The Kinks’ legacy, elevating them from simple one-hit wonders to one of the greatest bands to ever grace British shores.
In the wake of ‘You Really Got Me’, after all, Davies began to pursue something far more mature and likely in-keeping with his art school training, landing upon ambitious and still woefully underrated concept albums like The Village Green Preservation Society or Arthur, which both provided the kind of stunning social commentary not often found in late 1960s rock and roll records.
It might have gone against his life plans, but it is a good job that Ray Davies fully embraced his role within The Kinks eventually. After all, without them, the sight and sound of alternative rock, punk, and a litany of other wonderfully distorted subgenres would sound virtually unrecognisable.
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