Single:
You Really Got Me entered the Australian singles chart* on 26 September 1964 and peaked at #8. It was #66 on the Top 100 of 1964.
Album:
The song is on the band’s 1964 debut album, Kinks.
Songwriter:
Ray Davies
Producer:
Shel Talmy
Record label of Australian release:
Astor
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
From The Kinks’ 1980 live album One For the Road, filmed during their 1979–1980 US tour:
Songfacts:
Kinks frontman Ray Davies wrote the lyric to this rambunctious rocker after watching girls dancing in a club. It’s not the most articulate lyric, but that’s the point: The guy in the song is so infatuated, all he can do is mutter at the girl how she’s really got him.
In 2015, Ray Davies told Rolling Stone: “I just remembered this one girl dancing. Sometimes you’re so overwhelmed by the presence of another person and you can’t put two words together.”
Dave Davies got the dirty guitar sound by slashing the speaker cone on his amplifier with a razor blade. The vibration of the fabric produced an effect known as “fuzz,” which later became common as various electronic devices were invented to distort the sound.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/the-kinks/you-really-got-me
Lyrics:
Girl, you really got me going
You got me so I don’t know what I’m doing
Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at night
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 60s
Also on Bang a Gong: You Really Got Me by Van Halen
Find more songs to enjoy: Bang a Gong song finder
New to Bang a Gong? Click HERE to learn more about us.