Occasional Albums Thing 050 - The Kinks “Spotlight On The Kinks”

The Kinks are another of those 60’s bands I’ll take over other far more feted contemporary combos. I have a handful of their singles and the wonderful “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society” but had always hankered after a singles comp that covered their heyday. And then this fine collection came my way.

“Spotlight On…” was a series of budget 2 LP compilations on PRT (formerly Pye) Records, collecting together the best of their artists. The series includes collections by Status Quo, The Searchers, Donovan and many other less interesting luminaries. The good thing about them is they were made in the days (1981 this one) before record companies crammed too many tracks on each side, so they sound great.

I feel like I might be preaching to the perverted when I say that Ray Davies is one of THE greatest songwriters our little island has ever produced. There are 24 songs on this compilation, 22 written solely by Ray, 1 with brother Dave and 1 by Dave Davies alone. What stands out immediately when perusing the track list is the number of these songs that have been covered by other artists, of all genres. “You Really Got Me” (Mott the Hoople, Van Halen, Sly Stone, Toots & The Maytals !), “All Day And All Of The Night” (The Stranglers), “Victoria” (The Fall), “David Watts” (The Jam), “Mr Pleasant” (The Mission), “Stop Your Sobbin’” (The Pretenders), “Waterloo Sunset” (David Bowie, First Aid Kit), “Days” (Kirsty MacColl)…if imitation is the biggest form of flattery then covering someone’s song must be the ultimate form of musical flattery.

Every track on this collection was released as a single (somewhere in the world), criminally there are only 3 UK #1’s*** (haven’t I always told you the great record buying public wouldn’t know greatness if it walked up to them and said “hello my name is greatness”!)…how was “Waterloo Sunset” never a #1 ? I’ll tell you how, the great record buying public preferred “Silence Is Golden” by the bloody Tremeloes that’s how! Thanx great record buying public, cloth eared philistines the lot of ya.

By the way...the title of this post is (allegedly) what Paul McCartney said to Dave Davies about Kinks song "See My Friends".

Mr Pleasant - https://youtu.be/fwpJGewUyYk?si=sgNsRwecGQaPImWH

*** ”You Really Got Me”, “Tired Of Waiting For You” and “Sunny Afternoon” in case you were interested.