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You Really Got Me – The Kinks

About the Song

In 1964, a British band named The Kinks burst onto the music scene with a song that would forever change the course of rock and roll. “You Really Got Me” was a raw, gritty, and undeniably catchy tune that captured the essence of teenage rebellion and the thrill of new love.

Written by frontman Ray Davies, the song was inspired by his experiences with British blues and R&B artists like Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry. However, Davies injected his own unique twist into the song, incorporating a distorted guitar riff that would become a signature sound of the British Invasion.

The song’s lyrics are simple but powerful, expressing the intense emotions of a young man falling in love. The singer’s voice is filled with desperation and longing as he pleads with his lover to stay with him.

“You Really Got Me” was an instant hit, reaching number one in the UK charts and number seven in the US. It helped to establish The Kinks as one of the leading bands of the British Invasion and paved the way for a new wave of British rock bands that would dominate the music scene in the years to come.

The song’s legacy is undeniable. It is considered one of the most influential rock and roll songs of all time, and its impact can still be felt in music today. “You Really Got Me” is a timeless classic that continues to capture the hearts of music fans around the world.

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Lyrics: You Really Got Me

Girl, you really got me goin’
You got me so I don’t know what I’m doin’
Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at nightYeah, you really got me now
You got me so I don’t know what I’m doin’, now
Oh yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at nightYou Really Got Me
You Really Got Me
You Really Got MeSee, don’t ever set me free
I always wanna be by your side
Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at nightYeah, you really got me now
You got me so I don’t know what I’m doin’, now
Oh yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at nightYou Really Got Me
You Really Got Me
You Really Got Me
Oh no…

[Solo]

See, don’t ever set me free
I always wanna be by your side
Girl, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at night

Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I don’t know what I’m doin’, now
Oh yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can’t sleep at night

You Really Got Me
You Really Got Me
You Really Got Me

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Nothing about the ticket said farewell. On June 19, 1977, thousands entered Omaha’s Civic Auditorium expecting what they had come for many times before: Elvis Presley onstage. There was another concert ahead, another city, another tour date. Nobody in that audience had been told they were watching a man with less than two months left to live.

Some of the saddest photographs of Elvis Presley are not the ones in which he looks tired. They are the ones in which he is smiling. By then, he had everything his younger self could once have dreamed about: money, Graceland, worldwide fame and audiences that still screamed his name. Yet success had never taught him how to replace the people and pieces of life he had lost along the way.

Some Elvis stories are remembered because they happened beneath enormous stage lights. Others survive because they supposedly happened when almost nobody was watching. One such story tells of Elvis noticing an elderly woman struggling with groceries and stopping to help her. For a man accustomed to people noticing him, the striking detail is that he noticed someone else first.

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