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).