Riccardo Bertoncelli's favorite Ray Davies songs

Riccardo Bertoncelli’s favorite Ray Davies songs

Since “ubi maior, minor cessat”, to greet the anniversary of the birthday of Ray Daviesfounder of Kinksborn in Fortis Green, on 21 June 1944, a few years ago we turned to Riccardo Bertoncelli, who is a great admirer of Davies and has indisputable expertise on the British band’s repertoire. We asked Bertoncelli to choose his ten favorite songs by the Kinks, and he, while grumbling (“…and I left out, sigh, ‘I Go To Sleep’, ‘Quiet Life’, ‘All Of Day & All Of The Night’, ‘Days’, ‘Dead End Street’ , ‘Art Lover’…), sent us his list of titles. You can see (and listen) it below.

“Waterloo Sunset” – Released as a single in 1967, and included on the album “Something else by the Kinks”.

“Too Much On My Mind” – Released on the Kinks’ fourth studio album, “Face to face”, 1966.

“You Really Got Me” – The Kinks’ third single, number one in the British charts in 1964, is included in the “Kinks” album released the same year.

“See My Friends” – Released as a single in Britain in 1965, it gave its title to a 2010 solo album by Ray Davies.

“Autumn Almanac” – Released as a single in 1967, it rose to number three in the UK charts.

“Sunny Afternoon” – Released as a single in 1966, it went to number one in the charts; it was then included in the album “Face to face” and in the 1967 compilation to which it gave its title.

“Celluloid Heroes” – Second single from the 1972 album “Everybody’s in show-biz”, mentions in the lyrics the names of famous actors such as Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Bela Lugosi, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, George Sanders and Mickey Rooney .

“A Rock & Roll Fantasy” – Fourth track from the 1978 album “Misfits”, it was also the lead single from the LP, and curiously tells of a man, Dan, who is a big fan of… the Kinks.

“Yo-Yo” – From the 1971 album “Give the people what they want,” the band’s eighteenth full-length album.

“Postcard From London” – A duet with Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders (with whom Davies had an affair in the 1980s and had a daughter, Natalie).