The Kinks' 40 Greatest Songs Ranked
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- A ranking of The Kinks' 40 greatest songs spans the band's full career from 1965 ("Till the End of the Day," "See My Friends") to 1993 ("Scattered" from the album Phobia), with each entry annotated by context, lyrics, and legacy.
- "Come Dancing" (1983) is identified as The Kinks' only UK hit in the final 22 years of their career — a nostalgic track tied to Ray Davies's sister Rene dying in a dancehall the same day she gave him his first guitar.
- Dave Davies's "Living on a Thin Line" (1984) — described as an "atmospheric, ominous and pessimistic survey of Thatcher's Britain" — was rescued from obscurity by its inclusion on the soundtrack of The Sopranos.
- "See My Friends" (1965) is called "hugely innovative" for its droning, raga-influenced sound (whether inspired by a stopover in Mumbai or folk guitarist Jon Mark) and its oblique lyrical treatment of homosexuality.
- "Dead End Street" (1966) is singled out for bringing social realism to mid-60s British pop, complete with a mournful french horn and shouted chorus, having "more in common with contemporary TV dramas than it did the rest of the charts."
- The list elevates deep cuts and unreleased material alongside canonical hits, including "I Go to Sleep" — a 1965 ballad the Kinks never officially released but which was covered by the Pretenders and, per the article, best by German singer Marion Maerz in 1967.
- "Lola" (1970) is placed at #12 with the note that it has been "the subject of some controversy in recent years," though the entry's description is cut off mid-sentence.
Why it matters: The ranking's framing positions The Kinks as chroniclers of British identity — from 1960s social realism ("Dead End Street") to Thatcher-era pessimism ("Living on a Thin Line") to the band's own late-career commercial fade — making the list as much a portrait of postwar Britain as a song ranking. By placing deep cuts alongside obvious hits and crediting Ray Davies with innovations in sound ("See My Friends") and lyrical ambiguity, the piece stakes a claim about which Kinks songs deserve canonical status.
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