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The Kinks and the Story of “You Really Got Me”

Poetic Wax | November 26, 2025



In October and November of 1964, The Kinks released their debut studio album, “You Really Got Me.” The title track was raw and gritty with an enormous sound that caught the world off guard. This is the story of that song, how Dave Davies got that sound, the mystery girl who inspired Ray Davies’ lyrics, and the rumor that Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin played that famed guitar solo.

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Poetic Wax is a weekly music history series hosted by Andy Fenstermaker.

CHAPTERS:
0:00 Poetic Wax
0:49 The Birth and Roots of ‘You Really Got Me’
3:14 How Dave Davies Got That Sound
5:50 Jazz on a Summer’s Day
6:55 The Tumultuous Recording of ‘You Really Got Me’
8:45 The Myth of Jimmy Page
10:18 The Mystery Girl Theories
12:13 The Cultural Impact of The Kinks

#poeticwax #thekinks #youreallygotme #raydavies #davedavies #musichistory #behindthemusic #andyfenstermaker

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Written by Poetic Wax

Comments

This post currently has 34 comments.

  3. @patrickmcmanus5373

    November 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    1962 Marty Robbins released the first song with "Fuzz" after the recording desk had a fault.
    The engineers who repaired the desk discovered that a diode had touched a transistor and the Fuzz Pedal was born officially in 1965❤

  4. @matthewzingg8878

    November 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    Some of the songs, Jimmy Paige did play on were
    just can’t go to sleep
    Beautiful Delilah
    And bald headed woman I’m sure there were a few others back then Jimmy Paige had an early version of a wah pedal that can be heard on two of these songs Jimmy Paige also played on The A& B side of the Who’s first official single can’t explain and on its B side, bald headed woman same producer by the way, you can clearly hear an early distortion pedal that was Jimmy Paige and the solo was also him very obviously him. Paige back in the day could mimic a lot of type of players, but he still had his own style even back then.

  7. @Mr22thou

    November 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    I just listened to The Train & the River by The Jimmy Giuffre 3 and the comparison is undeniable. And I'm very familiar with Chuck's record. Very cool!

  14. @jelkel25

    November 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    I grew up on stories from the British Mod era from both of my parents and they crackled with energy just like the media of the time. This song captures that energy perfectly.

  19. @flynnlizzy5469

    November 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    1990s ? I still have my original 45 rpms (they are small single song records) including 'You Really Got Me', 'Satisfaction', 'Help Me Rhonda" and so on The sounds these guys made in '64 – '65 had never been heard before by human ears. Looking backwards rather than for the first time, theres just no comparison and I wish there was a way to mess with time to bring all you people born after 1960, to that time so you could hear sounds such as these. Clapton, Hendrix ? It amazes me when I hear people compare SRV with Hendrix. Of course he was excellent but he first heard those sounds listening to the ones Jimi made years earlier. It isn't the same. What was the last 'new sound', a truly new, never been heard before sound ?

  22. @gregorybrian

    November 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    As a sidenote, the first appearance of distorted guitar sound was on the song Rocket 88 way back in 1951 by Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats. The story goes that when they were loading the equipment into a car to go to the studio to record the song, the speaker in the guitar amp was damaged, thereby creating the distortion. And the band had no choice but to use that amp.

  25. @anonyarena

    November 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    There's a fairly incorrect statement being made in your introduction. The Kinks had their first top ten single You Really Got Me in the USA before The Stones had any major hits here. So, the Kinks would not be a British group "fighting" for U.S. attention in a "wave" of "British Invasion" groups "dominated by The Beatles and Rolling Stones." If anything, the two "British Invasion" groups "dominating" the USA charts when The Kinks first hit here, were The Beatles and The Dave Clark 5. For clarification: You Really Got Me debuted in the USA in September 1964, and reached #7 on the Top Ten that year. The Rolling Stones' first top 10 song in the USA was Time Is On My Side, which debuted in Oct 1964 and reached #6…that's AFTER The Kinks had already hit with You Really Got Me. In December of '64, The Kinks had another top ten with All Day And All Of The Night, getting to #7. Then in March of '65 The Kinks single Tired Of Waiting For You debuted, and got up to #6. That month of March of '65, The Stones finally had their second Top Ten hit, The Last Time, which reached #9. So, we are literally seeing The Kinks beating the Stones, 3 hits to 2, as well as hitting first, before The Stones had a hit. The Stones were not dominating US charts at all… not until (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction hit #1 in July 1965! THEN they truly start dominating with a string of more #1s while The Kinks began to falter, and had no #1s here. The Kinks have a bunch of singles, the highest charting of which only reach #13 (A Well Respected Man) until they finally get another Top Ten with Lola in 1970 which got to #9. We may also compare both The Stones and Kinks to Dave Clark 5 to see the DC5 have four top ten hits (and one #11 hit) before the Kinks or Stones ever appear on the US chart at all. [The fact that The Beatles dominated the charts is undisputed.] But, it is true, however, that The Stones were already having big hits in England before The Kinks were having hits over there. Still, when we're taking about British groups in Britain having hits in Britain, we don't ever call them British "Invasion" in that case, because they are in their own home country. When we are referring to British groups having hits in Britain the standard term we use to refer to them is "Beat Groups." That's because "British Invasion" is a term we only use for British groups figuratively "invading" the American charts. Hope this helps put The Kinks chart action in the USA in relation to these other notable groups in it's proper perspective.

  27. @frankperry1111

    November 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    A dumb quirk about the Kinks. Their name Ray and Dave Davies, Davies is pronounced Davis. In the states the extra e in Davies had people pronouncing the name wrong. In England they spell some things a bit different. Stop saying dave ease for Davis.

  28. @erniericardo8140

    November 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    The story goes that Page doesnt remember playing on this song, Jon Lord has said that he clearly remembers playing on this along with Page, Shel Talmy has said it was a different take that wasnt used, and Ray Davie's flat out has declared that Page had nothing to do with this song.

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