The Kinks – You Really Got Me

“You Really Got Me” – Single by the Kinks, released 4 August 1964 (UK) and 2 September 1964 (US)
Recorded in July 1964.

Kinks frontman Ray Davies wrote the lyric to this rambunctious rocker after watching girls dancing in a club. It’s not the most articulate lyric, but that’s the point: The guy in the song is so infatuated, all he can do is mutter at the girl how she’s really got him.

The Kinks recorded a slower version with a blues feel on their first attempt, but hated the results. Ray Davies thought it came out clean and sterile, when he wanted it to capture the energy of their live shows. Dave Davies’ girlfriend backed them up, saying it didn’t make her want to “drop her knickers.”

The Kinks’ record company had no interest in letting them re-record the song, but due to a technicality in their contract, they were able to withhold the song until they could do it again. At the second session, Dave Davies used his slashed amp and Talmy produced it to get the desired live sound. This is the version that was released. Talmy liked the original: He claimed it would also have been a hit if it was released.

Ray Davies came up with famous riff on the piano at the family home. He played it for Dave, who transposed it to guitar. Their first version was 6-minutes long, but the final single release came in at just 2:20.

The first line was originally “you, you really got me going.” Ray Davies changed it to “girl, you really got me going” at the suggestion of one of their advisers. The idea was to appeal to the teenage girls in their audience.

The final version of the song was recorded in July 1964, with Ray Davies on lead vocals, Dave Davies on guitar, and Pete Quaife on bass.

The Kinks didn’t have a drummer when they first recorded the song a month earlier, so producer Shel Talmy brought in a session musician named Bobby Graham to play. When they recorded it the second time in July, Mick Avory had joined the band as their drummer, but Talmy didn’t trust him and made him play tambourine while Graham played drums. A session musician named Arthur Greenslade played piano, and Jon Lord, years before he became a member of Deep Purple, claimed he played keyboards. Lord recalled with a laugh to The Leicester Mercury in 2000: “All I did was plink, plink, plink. It wasn’t hard.”

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The Kinks - You Really Got Me

The Kinks - You Really Got Me - "The Beat Room" Show (1964)02:13

Prior to its release, the Kinks performed “You Really Got Me” in some of their early concerts. It was a crowd favourite, with Ray Davies later claiming to feel a connection with the crowd as he performed the song. Ray later said, “Our success came from playing [the song] live. When we played ‘You Really Got Me’ people actually took notice. They realized we had something original.”

The Kinks continued to perform successfully for over 30 years through many musical styles, but “You Really Got Me” remained a mainstay in concert. During some shows, the song was played in a medley with its follow-up single “All Day and All of the Night”, while in 1977, a performance on Saturday Night Live featured a four-song medley of “You Really Got Me”, “All Day and All of the Night”, “A Well Respected Man”, and “Lola”. In a live performance on the Don Lane Show in 1982, “You Really Got Me” was featured in a medley with the band’s 1981 song, “Destroyer”. In 1984, Dave Davies claimed that, even after twenty years of performing “You Really Got Me”, the track was “still fun to play live.”

Charted No.1 in UK and No.7 in US

The Kinks

Ray Davies – lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Dave Davies – backing vocal, lead guitar
Pete Quaife – backing vocal, bass
Mick Avory – tambourine

Bobby Graham – drums
Arthur Greenslade – piano

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