Single:
You Really Got Me entered the Australian singles chart* on 27 March 1978 and peaked at #12. It was #97 on the Top 100 of 1978.
Album:
The song is on Van Halen which entered the Australian albums chart* on 3 April 1978 and peaked at #17.
Songwriter:
Ray Davies
Producer:
Ted Templeman
Record label of Australian release:
Warner Bros
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
Wikipedia:
You Really Got Me was written by The Kinks frontman Ray Davies and released as their third single in 1964.
Van Halen released a cover on its self-titled 1978 debut album. As the band’s first single, it was a popular radio hit that helped jump-start the band’s career, as it had done for the Kinks 14 years earlier.
It is sometimes featured with Eruption, the instrumental that precedes it on the album, as an intro.
The Kinks’ Dave Davies was quoted as saying he disliked Van Halen’s rendition of the song. His brother Ray, on the other hand, claimed to like the track because it made him laugh.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Really_Got_Me
Songfacts:
Van Halen learned a bunch of Kinks songs when they were just starting out (in part because David Lee Roth had one of their greatest hits albums), and often played them at their shows when they were still a bar band. “They sounded good and they were great to dance to,” David Lee Roth said.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/van-halen/you-really-got-me
Lyrics:
Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I don’t know what I’m doin’
Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at night
Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I don’t know where I’m goin’
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – rockin’ the 60s & 70s
Also on Bang a Gong: You Really Got Me by The Kinks
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