Behind the Song “All Day and All of the Night” by The Kinks and Why Their Record Label Initially Rejected It

Every time I hear the opening of “All Day and All of the Night” by The Kinks, I am blown away by the first hit of the snare drum. Dave Davies’ power-chord guitar intro rips through like a sledgehammer knocking down a wall. I think of all of the classic Chuck Berry guitar intros and how precise they are. Davies is precise, but it’s not the nimble flourish-of-notes approach Berry uses. It’s more like a caveman swinging his club. The aggressive guitar part puts all of the torque on that very first downbeat of session drummer Bobby Graham’s first appearance on the song. The scene is set for Ray Davies to come in with the vocals, which are growled more than sung.

I’m not content to be with you in the daytime
Girl, I want to be with you all of the time
The only time I feel alright is by your side
Girl, I want to be with you all of the time
All day and all of the night
All day and all of the night

Dave Davies said this song was when he “found his voice.” He had been in the neighborhood with the previous single, “You Really Got Me.” If you listen to the first singles by The Kinks, they are more constrained. They had been signed to Pye Records, and their producer Shel Talmy was thinking along the lines of making records that sounded similar to The Searchers. The debut, a cover of Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally,” reached No. 42 on the UK chart but failed to chart in America. The follow-up missed the chart on both sides of the Atlantic.

“You Really Got Me” was an angry departure that moved the needle in a big way. It certainly wasn’t the first time a guitar was distorted, but it was less common for bands to purposely seek a less-than-wholesome sound. By the time they went into the studio to record “All Day and All of the Night,” Dave Davies wanted to crank it even more.

In 2015, he told Guitar Player magazine, “When they tried to develop amplifiers that had pre-gain and all, I thought it wasn’t quite right, and I struggled with the sound for a while. I never liked Marshalls because they sounded like everybody else. Then, in the mid-’70s, I started using Peavey, and people said, ‘Nobody uses Peavey. Country and western bands use them.’ I used to blow them up every night. I used two Peavey Maces together, and it was brilliant.”

Initially Rejected

Ray Davies said their record label initially rejected the song for being “too blue-collar, too working-class.” They also objected to the guitar sound, saying it sounded like a dog.

I believe that you and me last forever
Oh yeah, all day and night time yours, leave me never
The only time I feel alright is by your side
Girl, I want to be with you all of the time
All day and all of the night
All day and all of the night

Dave Davies and the drummer disagreed on the arrangement, “Before verse two and into verse three, I wanted a ‘bop-bop-bop’ fill, but Bobby was a bit reluctant to do it. He said I was getting a bit cocky, telling him what to do. But it ended up on the record. I wanted it there because I’d heard it on Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy,” and I’d always wanted it to be on one of my records. We had a big argument over it, but in the end, he took it on board.”

Another disagreement happened years later when Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page claimed he played the solo on the recording.

Ray Davies addressed this in 1981 when Creem magazine asked him about it. “I remember Page coming to one of our sessions when we were recording ‘All Day and All of the Night.’ We had to record that song at 10 o’clock in the morning because we had a gig that night,” he recalled. “It was done in three hours. Page was doing a session in the other studio, and he came in to hear Dave’s solo, and he laughed and he snickered. And now he says that he played it! So I think he’s an a–hole, and he can put all the curses he wants on me because I know I’m right and he’s wrong.”

Another conflict occurred in 1968 when The Doors released “Hello, I Love You.” It sounds more than a little similar. Dave Davies’ publisher suggested legal action.

Dave Davies told Mojo magazine in 2012, “I said rather than sue them, can we just get them to own up? My publisher said, ‘They have. That’s why we should sue them!’ Jim Morrison admitted it, which, to me, was the most important thing. The most important thing, actually, is to take [the idea] somewhere else.”

“All Day and All of the Night” was a huge success, but it would actually be eclipsed on the charts by the next single, “Tired of Waiting for You.” They changed it up rather than return to the formula that worked so well.

Dave Davies remembers, “The recording went well, but there was something missing, and it was my raunchy guitar sound. Ray and I were worried that putting that heavy-sounding guitar on top of a ponderous song might ruin it. Luckily, it enhanced the recording, giving it a more cutting, emotional edge. In my opinion, ‘Tired of Waiting’ was the perfect pop record.”

The raunchy guitar sound would influence musicians for generations. Garage bands everywhere started bashing out the power chord riffs created by Dave Davies. Heavy-metal bands and punks alike embraced The Kinks. 

Metallica, Van Halen, Green Day, The Jam, Elvis Costello, and David Bowie covered The Kinks. Now, I’m going to listen to that opening again … and again … and again.

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Photo by David Redfern/Redferns