One of rock & roll’s most enduring acts, the Kinks forged hard rock’s early template through blistering 1964 singles such as “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night.” Those tracks not only spurred contemporaries including the Who and David Bowie but also laid groundwork for both punk and metal. The group’s story extended well into the 1990s, making them the sole British Invasion unit besides the Rolling Stones to maintain activity across three decades. While the Stones remained cultural focal points, the Kinks often worked at the periphery, partly by choice and partly by circumstance. Frontman and chief songwriter Ray Davies cultivated an observational stance toward everyday life, sharpening a talent for vivid character sketches and social observation that surfaced on mid-1960s singles like “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” and “Sunny Afternoon.” Even as fellow bands pursued psychedelic experimentation, the Kinks turned toward the quirks of British life on the 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, a collection that later helped define indie rock’s sonic and thematic landscape.
Although frequently viewed as outsiders—especially in the 1970s when Davies steered them toward ambitious rock operas—the Kinks never left the commercial mainstream. They scored a Top Ten hit with “Lola” in 1970, then spent much of the decade touring and building a devoted American audience. That groundwork yielded a surprise resurgence in the early 1980s when “Come Dancing,” buoyed by heavy MTV rotation, returned them to the upper reaches of the charts and secured another ten years of activity. Over that span the lineup gradually contracted to the Davies brothers, Ray and Dave, siblings whose longstanding rivalry coexisted with creative collaboration. The pair parted ways in the mid-1990s just as Brit-pop foregrounded their influence, yet reunion speculation persisted into the 2020s. In 2023 the band marked its 60th anniversary by issuing the first two volumes of a retrospective series, The Journey, Pt. 1 and The Journey, Pt. 2, each offering a curated overview of the catalog.
At the heart of the Kinks’ long and shifting history stood Ray and Dave Davies, both raised in Muswell Hill, London. During their teenage years the brothers played skiffle and rock & roll before enlisting Ray’s schoolmate Peter Quaife, who switched from guitar to bass. By summer 1963 the outfit had adopted the name the Ravens and added drummer Mickey Willet. A demo reached American producer Shel Talmy, then under contract to Pye Records, and the group secured a deal in 1964. Before signing, they replaced Willet with Mick Avory. Their debut single, a cover of Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally,” appeared in February 1964 under the newly chosen name the Kinks yet failed to chart, as did the follow-up “You Still Want Me.” The third release, “You Really Got Me,” introduced a raw, fuzz-laden two-chord riff and a wild solo by Dave Davies; it topped the British charts within weeks and reached the U.S. Top Ten on Reprise. The fourth single, “All Day and All of the Night,” climbed to number two at home and number seven stateside. In the same period the band issued two full-length albums and several EPs.
Relentless recording and touring bred internal friction. After completing their summer 1965 U.S. trek, American authorities barred the group from re-entering the country for reasons never specified. The four-year prohibition kept them from the world’s biggest market and distanced them from the cultural shifts of the late 1960s. Consequently Ray Davies’s writing turned more introspective and rooted in British traditions—music hall, country, and folk—than that of most peers. The Kink Kontroversy captured this evolution, and its single “Sunny Afternoon” became the biggest British hit of summer 1966. That track previewed the stylistic breadth of Face to Face, released in 1966. In May 1967 they returned with the ballad “Waterloo Sunset,” which peaked at number two in Britain. Something Else by the Kinks, issued that autumn, continued the artistic advance even as sales plateaued. A quick follow-up single, “Autumn Almanac,” restored commercial momentum, but “Wonderboy” in spring 1968 missed the Top Ten for the first time since “You Really Got Me.” “Days” offered partial recovery, yet the autumn 1968 release The Village Green Preservation Society, though critically praised in the U.S., sold poorly.
Peter Quaife departed at year’s end and was replaced by John Dalton. With the American touring ban lifted in early 1969, the Kinks prepared their first U.S. dates in four years. Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), released beforehand, retained the group’s characteristic British themes yet achieved only modest success. Keyboardist John Gosling joined before the sessions that produced “Lola,” a harder-rocking single that reached the Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic. The accompanying album, Lola Versus Powerman & the Moneygoround, Pt. 1, became their strongest seller since the mid-1960s and solidified their American concert draw. When the Pye/Reprise contract ended in 1971, the band signed a five-album deal with RCA that included a million-dollar advance. Muswell Hillbillies, their first RCA effort, revisited late-1960s nostalgia with stronger country and music-hall accents but failed to match commercial expectations. Reprise’s 1971 double-album compilation The Kink Kronikles outsold it. The 1973 double set Everybody’s in Showbiz fared better in the U.S. than at home.
That same year Ray Davies unveiled the ambitious rock opera Preservation. Its first installment drew harsh reviews; Act 2, issued in 1974, fared even worse. Davies next created Starmaker for the BBC; the project evolved into Soap Opera, released in spring 1975. Despite mixed notices, it outsold its predecessor. Schoolboys in Disgrace followed in 1976 and delivered the hardest rock of the RCA period. The band then moved to Arista and streamlined its sound. Bassist John Dalton exited during the making of the debut Arista album Sleepwalker and was replaced by Andy Pyle; the record became a major American hit. Pyle later departed, Dalton returned briefly, then both Dalton and John Gosling left after a British tour. Jim Rodford and Gordon Edwards stepped in, enabling the Kinks to headline U.S. arenas. (John Gosling died on August 4, 2023, at age 75.)
Though late-1970s punk acts such as the Jam and the Pretenders covered Kinks songs, the group leaned further toward mainstream rock, reaching a commercial peak with Low Budget (1979), which climbed to number 11 in the U.S. Give the People What They Want followed in late 1981, peaking at number 15 and earning gold certification. “Come Dancing,” released in spring 1983, benefited from repeated MTV exposure and became their biggest American hit since “Tired of Waiting for You,” reaching number six stateside and number 12 in Britain. State of Confusion maintained momentum, peaking at number 12. Tension between the Davies brothers surfaced during Ray’s work on the film Return to Waterloo. Rather than disband, the group replaced longtime drummer Mick Avory with Bob Henrit. Word of Mouth, issued in late 1984, continued the prevailing style but marked the beginning of commercial decline; the band never again cracked the Top 40.
After leaving Arista, the Kinks signed with MCA in the U.S. and London in the U.K. Think Visual (1986) yielded modest returns without hit singles. A live album, The Road, appeared the following year. UK Jive (1989) closed their MCA tenure. Keyboardist Ian Gibbons departed that year. Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 brought no commercial revival. A 1991 compilation, Lost & Found (1986-1989), signaled the end of the MCA contract. The band moved to Columbia, releasing the non-charting EP Did Ya and the 1993 album Phobia. By then only Ray and Dave Davies remained from the original lineup. Dropped by Columbia in 1994, they issued the live set To the Bone on an independent British label and lacked U.S. representation.
Public recognition rebounded in 1995 as Brit-pop bands including Blur and Oasis cited the Kinks as formative influences. Ray Davies appeared frequently on television, embraced as a generational figure while promoting his autobiography X-Ray. Dave Davies published his own memoir, Kink, in spring 1996. Reunion talk resurfaced in the early 2000s but subsided after Dave suffered a stroke in June 2004. He recovered fully, prompting fresh speculation later in the decade, yet no reunion occurred. Original bassist Peter Quaife died of kidney failure on June 23, 2010. Afterward Ray began demoing material with Mick Avory, and Dave gradually joined the effort. While preparing a 50th-anniversary reissue of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, the Davies brothers and Avory confirmed they were recording the first new Kinks album featuring the drummer since 1984’s Word of Mouth.
Before any new material surfaced, deluxe reissues marked the 50th anniversaries of Arthur in 2019 and Lola in 2020. In 2022 Muswell Hillbillies and Everybody’s in Showbiz appeared together in a lavish box set. March 2023 brought The Journey, Pt. 1, inaugurating a series of career-spanning compilations that presented remastered, thematically arranged selections accompanied by liner notes from Ray Davies, Dave Davies, and Mick Avory. The Journey, Pt. 2 followed in November 2023.
