I can take a hint: when two different cafés on two subsequent days are both playing The Kinks’ greatest hits, reminding me of how many great hits they did have, it’s clearly a sign that I should spin one for you. But which to pick… The obvious choice is, well, obvious: “Lola” – it’s awesome – one of the greatest rock songs ever. Or perhaps “You Really Got Me” – their third single and the song that catapulted them to stardom, with its proto-garage/punk sound. Or something a bit more cool from later in their career, like “Waterloo Sunset.” But I’m going to go with a real personal favorite of mine, a song released as a single in 1965 that made it to #1 on the UK charts and #6 in the USA, whose opening guitar twang is so distinctive, and still gets me excited:
The Kings, “Tired of Waiting for You” (1965)
When I think of cool British rock from the early 1960s, this is one of the first songs that comes to mind. There’s that guitar, Davies’ whine, the anti-love song aesthetic of it. Wow.
But, you know, since I can, here’s “Lola” and “Apeman” (which I was saving, and yet may use, for a double-bill with The Stones’ “Monkey Man”) and a song that entered the younger zeitgeist recently through its appearance on the Juno soundtrack, “A Well Respected Man.”
Filed under: Song of the Day, 1960s, music
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