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Credit: Far Out \/ Bent Rej \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
Sat 13 June 2026 8:00, UK <\/p>\n
It took a couple of years, but Ray Davies<\/a>, in his own unassuming way, managed to take a revenge swipe at John Lennon in a wholly creative way.<\/p>\n Such duelling was first sparked back in August 1964. At the time, there were three artists leading the way for the British invasion. Dusty Springfield had scored a smash on both sides of the Atlantic with \u2018I Only Want to Be with You\u2019, and Eric Burdon\u2019s haunting croon had pushed their cover of \u2018The House of the Rising Sun\u2019 to number one on both UK and US charts only the previous month.<\/p>\n However, one little Merseybeat group\u2019s TV debut on The Ed Sullivan Show truly unleashed the Anglo-hijack of the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n In the summer of 1964, The Beatles were the biggest band on the planet. Their global conquest was swift. Little over a year since \u2018She Loves You\u2019 took the Western pop world by storm, the Fab Four couldn\u2019t stop dropping hit after hit with dizzying pace, pulled from the Liverpool and Hamburg clubs to shows in Hong Kong and Australia, and A Hard Day\u2019s Night was playing out in movie theatres around the world<\/a>. Any band playing support to such a pop heavyweight would be nervous.<\/p>\n The Kinks were such a group. By August 2nd, the North London beat group only counted two non-charting singles under their belt, with \u2018You Really Got Me\u2019 just two days away from release. As far as the rest of the swinging music world was concerned, The Kinks were just another pop group cutting their teeth on the old R&B songbook. Yet, Davies and the lads were booked to open for The Beatles at Bournemouth\u2019s Gaumont Cinema as part of their Summer 1964 UK Tour, inviting a sharp quip from the ever acerbic Lennon while crossing paths backstage.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, by the way, lads, good luck,\u201d Davies recalled Lennon remarking. \u201cAnd if you forget your songs, you can borrow some of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s an arrogant and cutting jibe that reeks of Lennon, in all his confidence and insecurity. By all accounts, bad blood had stuck between the two from then, although feelings seemed to be tempered years later when reflecting on the prickly encounter. \u201cWell, yeah, but that\u2019s typical,\u201d he mused in 1996 on The Dini Petty Show. <\/p>\n \u201cMusicians are like that. You know, musicians have got the right to be unkind to one another\u2026 And we didn\u2019t mind because our record went to be number one. It knocked their record off the charts.\u201d<\/p>\n Ray Davies<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n Have that. He bid his time, but July 1966 saw The Kinks\u2019 \u2018Sunny Afternoon\u2019 shove The Beatles\u2019 \u2018Paperback Writer\u2019 off the number one spot. To be fair, the Fab Four counted bucketloads of chart toppers at that point and long after, but such small wins must have soothed Davies\u2019 long-standing Gaumont grudge. <\/p>\n The Kinks frontman must have laughed again the following February, when the \u2018Strawberry Fields Forever\u2019 \/ \u2018Penny Lane\u2019 double A-side was kept from number one<\/a> by Engelbert Humperdinck\u2019s drippy \u2018Release Me\u2019 ballad, cutting their nearly four-year consecutive chart-topping streak.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n