Some musical myths live on long after the story’s subjects deny or correct the narrative, and the rumor surrounding the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” is no exception, much to Dave Davies’ chagrin. Blame it on drugs, the fickleness of memory, the passing of time, and/or the producers who reaffirm the rumor every so often in press interviews. Any or all could be to blame.
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Whatever the reason, Davies has vehemently spoken out against the rumor surrounding his band’s arguably most famous and definitive track of all time. Even the other, opposing half of the myth has offered his two cents.
Dave Davies Dispels Rumor Around “You Really Got Me”
The musicians who were billed on an album weren’t always the ones who physically played the instruments for the record. Session musicians were and are commonplace in the popular music industry, and Jimmy Page was a particularly prolific one in the 1960s. His work as a session player landed him in the studio with the Kinks, with whom he worked on multiple songs, including “I’m a Lover Not a Fighter,” “I’ve Been Driving on Bald Mountain,” and possibly others. But one song he did not play on, the Kinks’ Dave Davies has so passionately argued, is “You Really Got Me.”
The song that kickstarted a new musical trend that prioritized heavy guitar distortion was, Davies argues, a Kinks song through and through. That future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page played the iconic guitar solo in the song is “quite ridiculous,” Davies told Guitar World in 2025. “It’s totally ridiculous that someone can merely try to take credit. It was me. It was The Kinks’ sound on a Kinks record. So, of course, I recorded the solo.”
Despite Davies frequently denying that Page played on The Kinks’ career-defining track, producer Eddie Kramer has claimed otherwise in public interviews. To Kramer’s credit, he always clarifies that Page playing on the album is how he “remembered it,” leaving room for the reality that he was wrong. Moreover, Davies has admitted to there being multiple versions of the track, which could possibly be what Kramer remembers Page playing on.
Jimmy Page Clarifies His Place Among the Rest of the Kinks
The rumor that Jimmy Page was actually the guitarist behind the solo on The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” inevitably places him at odds with the band’s actual guitarist, Dave Davies, regardless of whether Page actually did anything in the first place. When asked if he was actually the guitarist on the track, Page once said, “Oh, crikey! This is a result of internet meddling and muddling. I wasn’t on ‘You Really Got Me,’ but I did play on The Kinks’ records. That’s all I’m going to say about it. But every time I do an interview, people ask me about ‘You Really Got Me.’ So, maybe somebody can correct Wikipedia so people won’t keep asking me.”
Ultimately, it seems like the rumor about The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” comes from a myriad of factors. Perhaps most damningly, there were multiple takes of the classic 1960s rock song. Even if there weren’t decades between when the musicians and engineers first tracked the song (another contributing factor), it would be easy to confuse the different versions. Finally, the fact that Page played on some Kinks’ records makes the myth even easier to believe. Given the historical significance of the song’s guitar tone, of course, we don’t blame Dave Davies for so adamantly defending his role.
“I, Dave Davies, invented the distorted guitar sound and played the solo on ‘You Really Got Me,’ and Ray Davies played rhythm guitar. We never used ANY other guitarists on any Kinks hits,” Dave wrote in a since-deleted Facebook message, per Rolling Stone.
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