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You Really Got Me

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"You Really Got Me"
Song
B-side"It's All Right"

"You Really Got Me" is a rock song written by Ray Davies and performed by his band, The Kinks. It was released in August 1964 as the group's third single, and reached Number 1 on the UK singles chart the next month, remaining for two weeks. It was the group's breakthrough hit; it established them as one of the top British Invasion acts in the United States, reaching Number 7 there later in the year. It was later included on the Kinks' debut album, The Kinks.

"You Really Got Me" was an early hit song built around power chords (perfect 5ths and octaves),[1] and was heavily influential on later rock and roll musicians, particularly in the heavy metal genre. American musicologist Robert Walser wrote that it is, "the track which invented heavy metal"[1] while critic Denise Sullivan of Allmusic writes, "'You Really Got Me' remains a blueprint song in the hard rock and heavy metal arsenal."[2]

Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at number 82 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time and at number 4 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.[3] In early 2005, the song was voted the best British song of the 1955-1965 decade in a BBC radio poll. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 9 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.[4] In 2009 it was named the 57th Greatest Hard Rock Song by VH1.[5]

History

The song was recorded by the Kinks in a number of styles in the summer of 1964 before the final sound was achieved. The group was 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 Kinks' 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.

File:The Kinks You Really Got Me riff.PNG
The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" guitar riff

The influential distortion sound of the guitar track was created after guitarist Dave Davies sliced the speaker cone of his guitar amplifier with a razor blade and poked it with a pin.[2] The amplifier was affectionately called "little green," after the name of the amplifier made by the Elpico company, and purchased in Davies' neighbourhood music shop, slaved into a Vox AC-30.

The guitar solo on the recording is the source of one of the most controversial and persistent myths in all of rock and roll: that it was not played by the Kinks' lead guitarist Dave Davies, but by then-session player Jimmy Page. The solo is said to be actually played by Dave Davies (then seventeen years old), as most of the people involved in the July 1964 recording sessions for the track have always maintained. However, the story has circulated for decades that the solo was played by Jimmy Page,[6] who later joined The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin. Page was in fact hired by Kinks producer Shel Talmy as a session rhythm guitarist on a handful of tracks on the Kinks' first album, but those sessions took place several weeks after the "You Really Got Me" session. Page has always denied playing the song's guitar solo, going so far as to state in a 1977 interview that "I didn't play on 'You Really Got Me' and that's what pisses him (Ray Davies) off." Rock historian and author Doug Hinman makes a case that the rumour was begun and fostered by the established UK Rhythm and Blues community, many of whose members were resentful that an upstart band of teenagers such as the Kinks could produce such a powerful and influential blues-based recording, seemingly out of nowhere.

Several session musicians did play on "You Really Got Me": The piano work was by either keyboardist Jon Lord of Deep Purple[7] or Arthur Greenslade[8] In the same interview, Davies says that there was a session guitarist named Vic doubling his rhythm part, but that it wasn't Page. At the behest of producer Talmy, session drummer Bobby Graham played drums on the recording, rather than regular Kinks drummer Mick Avory. Graham went on to play the main drum part on many of the Kinks' early recordings. Interestingly, both Jon Lord and Talmy claim Jimmy Page did play on "You Really Got Me". Talmy credits him for the rhythm guitar[9] and Lord for the solo.[10]

According to Ray Davies, the song's characteristic riff came about while working out the chords of The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie." The Kinks' use of distorted guitar riffs continued with songs like "All Day and All of the Night," "Tired of Waiting for You," and "Set Me Free," among others. Pete Townshend of The Who has stated that their first single, "I Can't Explain," was an intentional soundalike of The Kinks' work at the time (The Who were also produced by Talmy at that time).

The Kinks would go on to perform successfully together as a band for over 30 years, through many musical styles, and they would always play "You Really Got Me" in concert. Both Ray and Dave Davies still perform the song in solo shows, generally as a closing number.

Cover versions

"You Really Got Me"
Song
B-side"Atomic Punk"

"You Really Got Me" has been recorded by many artists, with the 1978 version by Van Halen receiving airplay on classic rock radio rivaled only by the original.[2] In addition to solo versions by the Kinks band members and brothers Dave Davies and Ray Davies, as of 2008 Allmusic lists dozens of cover versions. The Van Halen version was used in the 1979 film Over the Edge (film) soundtrack.

Mott the Hoople did an all-instrumental cover on their eponymous debut album in 1969.

New Zealand blues-rock band The Human Instinct included a slow blues version of the song on their 1969 debut album, Burning Up Years. It also appeared as the B-side of their single "I Think I'll Go Back Home" the same year.

Radio Cult released a cover of the song on their album Retroactive in 2007.

Oingo Boingo also covered it on their 1981 debut album Only a Lad.

U.S. hard rock band Van Halen recorded "You Really Got Me"ⓘ for their 1978 debut album, Van Halen. It was a popular radio hit which helped jump-start the band's career,[11] as it had done for The Kinks 14 years earlier. On the radio, it has been frequently played together with "Eruption," the instrumental that precedes it on the album.[12] This version was the soundtrack of the celebrated,[13] award-winning[14] 1996 Nissan commercial Toys in which "Nick", driving a toy Nissan 300ZX, entices "Roxanne" out on a date, to "Tad"'s dismay.[15] Mattel sued,[16] but settled.[17] It was also used by Nissan for its Japanese commercials.[18] This version later appeared in the 2003 video game Karaoke Revolution and the 2006 video game Guitar Hero II. The Guitar Hero II version is itself a cover, however, the song was later revisited as a master recording in the Van Halen-themed Guitar Hero game, Guitar Hero: Van Halen.[citation needed]

In the opening scene of the 2009 movie Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, The Chipmunks are seen performing the song with Honor Society. Their full version can be heard in the 2009 album Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.[citation needed]

Charts

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year Single Chart Position
1964 "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks Pop Singles 7
1978 "You Really Got Me" by Van Halen Pop Singles 36
Preceded by UK number one single
"You Really Got Me"
10 September 1964 (2 weeks) 		Succeeded by

References

  1. ^ a b Walser, Robert (1993). Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music, p.9. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0819562602.
  2. ^ a b c "Review of 'You Really Got Me' ", Denise Sullivan, Allmusic, All Music.com
  3. ^ "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" Rolling Stone magazine. Archived from original 2008-06-25. Retrieved 2010-06-23.
  4. ^ "Greatest Guitar Tracks" March 21, 2005. Ultimate Guitar.
  5. ^ Vh1 (January 1, 2009). "Vh1 Top 100 Hard Rock Songs (list)". Spreadit.org. Retrieved February 7, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ 1995 "Inductee: Led Zeppelin". Full biography. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  7. ^ Purple Reign Lee Marlow, Leicester Mercury. July 26, 2000. (Archived at "Pictured Within" Jon Lord Official Fan Site). Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  8. ^ "Ray Davies Unravels The Kinks" (interview) Bill Holdship, CREEM Magazine, December 1981. Retrieved 2009-09-29
  9. ^ "Full interview transcript with Shel Talmy, producer of the Who and Kinks". Richie Unterberger, 1998. From Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll, Miller Freeman 1998. ISBN 0879305347. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  10. ^ Jon "Lord's Purple Reign" Joe Lalaina, Modern Keyboard Magazine, January, 1989. (Archived at "The Highway Star" Deep Purple Fan site.) Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  11. ^ "Van Halen - Inductee 2007" Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. March 12, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
  12. ^ "'You Really Got Me' song facts" Songfacts.com; Songfacts, LLC. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  13. ^ Best Advertising Of 1996. Bellafante et al., Time Magazine. December 23, 1996. Retrieved 2009-09-29
  14. ^ "1997 CLIO Award Winners". CLIO Awards. 1997. Archived from the original on 1998-01-13. "Toys": Gold, Bronze(2), Television/Cinema category.
  15. ^ "A Car Ad That Floors Viewers". Robert Dominguez, New York Daily News. October 29, 1996. Retrieved 2009-07-03.
  16. ^ "Mattel Sues Nissan Over TV Commercial". New York Times. September 20, 1997. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  17. ^ "Battleground Barbie: When Copyrights Clash" Peter Hartlaub, The Los Angeles Daily News. May 31, 1998. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
  18. ^ "Nissan Skyline R34 Early" (video). TV Commercial. (Japanese). YouTube.com.
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