You Really Got Me:

"You Really Got Me" is a rock song written by Ray Davies and performed by his band, The Kinks. It was released as the group's third single, in August 1964, and reached Number 1 on the UK singles chart the following month, staying there for two weeks. It was the group's breakthrough hit, and 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 (parallel 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]

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.

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 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 Shel 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 Shel 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]

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" 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.^[11]

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.

On Mott the Hoople's debut album, they did an all instrumental version of the song.^[11] A vocal version is included on several later compilation albums.

From a short-lived progressive/glam-rock supergroup featuring Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera and Roxy alumnus Brian Eno, 801's debut LP '801 Live' included a version of "You Really Got Me" in the mode of the noisier uptempo songs on Eno's early-1970s rock albums.^[11]

In 1978, Robert Palmer released his solo album Double Fun, a collection of Caribbean-influenced rock which included a down-tempo and syncopated version of "You Really Got Me". The album reached the Top 50 on the US Billboard charts.^[11]

From their only album (which went by different titles in various markets), this version was a combination of hard rock & electronic disco. Trevor Rabin was a member of this band.^[12]

Probably the most famous non-Kinks version of

"You Really Got Me" (help·info) was by the US hard rock band Van Halen, who recorded the song for their 1978 debut album, Van Halen.^[11] It was a popular radio hit, and helped jump-start the band's career^[13], just as it had done for The Kinks 14 years earlier. On the radio, it is usually played together with "Eruption," the instrumental that precedes it on the album.^[14]

This version was the soundtrack of the celebrated^[15] 1996 Nissan commercial Toys in which "Nick", driving a toy Nissan 300ZX, entices "Roxanne" out on a date, to "Tad"'s dismay.^[16] Mattel sued,^[17] but settled.^[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.

Dalek I Love You's version, on their 1979 album Compass Kumpas^[11], is very different from the original; it features a mixture of vocals and synth-pop instrumentation.

Oingo Boingo's 1981 version differed markedly from the original, similar in style to Devo's twisted covers. It was included on Oingo Boingo's 1981 album Only A Lad.^[11]

Serbian hard rock band Cactus Jack released an "All Day and All of the Night" / "You Really Got Me" medley on their 2002 live album DisCover.

In 2006, New Zealand radio station The Edge created New Zealand's first ever manufactured boy band in a promotion. This group released one single in their promised "15 seconds of fame", a version of "You Really Got Me". This single spent one week at number one in the RIANZ New Zealand Singles Chart.

Metallica covered the song along with Ray Davies at Madison Square Garden in New York City for their performance at the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert.

Charts

References

^ ^a ^b Walser, Robert (1993). Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music, p.9. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0819562602.
^ ^a ^b ^c Review of "You Really Got Me", Denise Sullivan, Allmusic, All Music.com
^ The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time : Rolling Stone
^ http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/greatest_guitar_tracks.html
^ "spreadit.org music". http://music.spreadit.org/vh1-top-100-hard-rock-songs/. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
^ http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/led-zeppelin Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Led Zeppelin
^ Jon Lord Official Fan Site - Pictured Within www.picturedwithin.com
^ Ray Davies Unravels The Kinks Interview, Bill Holdship, CREEM Magazine, December 1981. Retrieved 2009-09-29
^ Full interview transcript with Shel Talmy, producer of the Who and Kinks, Richie Unterberger, richieunterberger.com
^ Jon Lord's Purple Reign Joe Lalaina, Modern Keyboard Magazine, January, 1989
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Recorded Performances of "You Really Got Me" from Allmusic The Guide 2008 lists Tommy Angelo, Pimpi Arroyo, Big Al & the Atomsmashers, The Blizzards, Bloomsbury Pops, Boy Howdy, Marty Casey, Los Chicos, David Clay, Alan Clayson & the Argonauts, Combination No. 10, Daddy Mack Blues Band, Dalek I Love You, Paul Di'Anno, Dianno, Dirty Tricks, Doctor Mix & the Remix, Eclipse, 801, Eve 6, Forcefield, Friar Tuck and The Monks, Girl, The Gonn, Herb Gross & the Invictas, Charlie Haas, The Hammersmith Gorillas, Happy Schnapps Combo, Heavy Cruiser, Hexstatic, Hit Crew, Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, Jerry Wayne Jodice, Juggernaut Jug Band, Seth Kibel, The Knickerbockers, the London Symphony Orchestra, Lords of the New Church, Wayne Morris, Mott the Hoople, Negative Ken, Bill Nighy, No Mercy, Oingo Boingo, Los Pacificos, Jimmy Page, Robert Palmer, Patron Saints (band), Iggy Pop, Radio Cult, Retros, Robots in Disguise, Rosetta Stone (band), Helen Schneider, Siggi Schwarz, Silicon Teens, Skeletal Earth, Skid Row, Sly & the Family Stone, The Small Faces, Smart Alec, The Smithereens, Stackwaddy, The Stooges, Studio 99, Sugar Beats, Gina T., 13th Floor Elevators, Thundermug (band), Tight Fit, Tom Baker, Toots & the Maytals, Van Halen, Venus in Bluejeans, Mariska Veres, Vintage Buzz, Warfare, WaveGroup, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and The Wilde Flowers.
^ Disco Rock Machine discography, [Discogs.com], retrieved 2009-04-23.
^ Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee 2007 - Van Halen March 12, 2007 retrieved May 8, 2009
^ http://forum.guitarherogame.com/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=6745, retrieved 2009-01-29.
^ Best Advertising Of 1996 Bellafante et al., Time Magazine 1996-12-23. Retrieved 2009-09-29
^ A Car Ad That Floors Viewers Robert Dominguez, New York Daily News, 1996-10-29. Retrieved 2009-07-03.
^ Mattel Sues Nissan Over TV Commercial New York Times, September 20, 1997
^ Battleground Barbie: When Copyrights Clash Peter Hartlaub, The Los Angeles Daily News, May 31, 1998. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9VKKcSAaqQ
^ Sanjaya Malakar Voted Off 'American Idol', Associated Press, April 19, 2007

You Really Got Me

Contents

History

Cover versions

Charts

References