You Really Got Me

"You Really Got Me" is a song written by Ray Davies and performed by his band, The Kinks. Released as the group's third single in August 1964, it got to Number 1 in the UK charts the following month and stayed there for two weeks. It was the breakthrough hit for the band that established them as one of the top British Invasion bands, and was heavily influencial on later Rock and Roll musicians, espcially in the Heavy Metal genre.

Related Topics:
Song - Ray Davies - The Kinks - Single - August - 1964 - Chart - British Invasion - Rock and Roll - Heavy Metal

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For the era, this was a raw, gritty, and edgy piece of otherwise straight guitar music complete with lyrics which hinted at pleading and mad passion. It was, however, the instrumentation which would catch the ear - more adult, less female-friendly than The Beatles and pre-empting the toughness of contemporaries the Rolling Stones, who were emerging at the same time but had initially relied on stage flair and cover versions to establish themselves.

Related Topics:
Guitar - Lyrics - The Beatles - Rolling Stones

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The song was recorded by the Kinks in a number of styles in the summer of 1964 before the final sound was achieved. They were under tremendous pressure for a hit from their record company Pye, after their two previous single releases failed to chart. Ray Davies in particular was stubbornly persistent in forcing the Kink's management and record company to take the time and money needed to develop the record's landmark sound and style. Davies' efforts on behalf of the career-making song effectively established him as the leader and chief songwriter of the Kinks.

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The three-chord guitar track was the most influential aspect of the record. It was a variation on the similar chords used two years early by the Kingsmen with their hit Louie, Louie, which was a major number in the Kink's stage act at the time. The riff consisting of two power chords working through the whole song, which itself measured in at little more than two minutes. The riff:

Related Topics:
Kingsmen - Louie, Louie - Riff - Power chords

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The influential distortion sound of the guitar track was created after guitarist Dave Davies sliced the cone of his amplifier with a razor blade (an alternative version says he poked knitting needles into the amplifier). The wry vocal (by Ray Davies), meanwhile, was delivered without a smile and with no little hint of menace.

Related Topics:
Dave Davies - Ray Davies

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The guitar solo on the recording is the source of one of the most persistent and controversial "urban myths" in all of rock and roll. The solo was played by Kinks lead guitarist Dave Davies, as everyone involved in the July 1964 recording sessions for the track has always maintained. Although an effective and intergral part of the song, it is essentially a speeded up variation of the Louie, Louie guitar solo, and did not represent a great technical or stylistic achievement on par with song's driving three-chord rhythm backing. However, the story has circulated for decades that the solo was played by Jimmy Page who later joined The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin. Page was in fact hired by Kinks producer Shel Talmy as a session player to play rhythm guitar on a handful of tracks on the Kink's first album, but this followed the release of You Really Got Me as a single. Rock historian and author Doug Hinman makes a case that the rumor was begun and fostered by the established UK Rhythm and Blues community (which included Page), many of whose members were resentful that an upstart band of teenagers such as the Kinks could produce such a powerful and influencial blues-based recording, from seemingly out of nowhere. The rumor gained huge momentum in the 1970's after Page went on to become perhaps the greatest of all heavy metal guitar heroes with the band Led Zeppelin, with his legions of fans eager to believe he played a major role in a prototypical heavy metal song.

Related Topics:
Guitar solo - Dave Davies - Jimmy Page - The Yardbirds - Led Zeppelin - Shel Talmy - Rhythm and Blues

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One critic would later describe the song as "the track which invented heavy metal." A 1978 remake of You Really Got Me by the band Van Halen would jumpstart their career, just as it had done for the Kinks almost 15 years earlier.

Related Topics:
Critic - Heavy metal - Van Halen

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The Kinks would go on to perform successfully together as a band for over 30 years, through many musical styles, but they would always play You Really Got Me in concert, to great reception. Both Ray and Dave Davies still perform the song in solo shows, generally as a closing number. In early 2005, the song was voted the best British song of the 1955-1965 decade in a BBC radio poll.

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