A band that had built its name on short, jagged guitar hits suddenly put a harpsichord at the center of a song about a rich man lounging in the sun. That was The Kinks in 1966, and the song, "Sunny Afternoon," reached number one in the UK before the album around it even existed. On October 28, 1966, the group released Face to Face, their fourth studio album, and it was the first time every track was written entirely by the band's own Ray Davies.
Baroque pop and music hall turn
The record marked a deliberate turn away from the hard beat sound that had made them famous. Instead of another round of power chords, The Kinks leaned into baroque pop and music hall, a style full of old English theatricality and ornate keyboard lines. Davies became a sharp, satirical observer of English culture, class and the music industry itself. Critics later called Face to Face one of rock's first concept albums, a record where the songs share a mood and a point of view even without a single storyline.
The sessions were not smooth. Bassist Pete Quaife was seriously hurt in a car crash on June 3, 1966, and temporarily left the group. John Dalton stepped in, though his playing is confirmed on only one track, "Little Miss Queen of Darkness." Ray Davies wanted to link the songs with sound effects, but Pye Records forced him back to a standard format. Some of those effects still survived inside tracks like "Party Line" and "Rainy Day in June."
Chart positions and the singles
The label also fought Davies over the psychedelic cover, which he later judged unsuitable. Contract problems delayed the release for months after recording finished. When the album finally arrived, the reception was lukewarm: it stalled at number 12 in the UK and number 135 in the United States. The singles told a stranger story. "Sunny Afternoon" had already topped the UK chart that summer, while the follow-up, "Dandy," was cancelled in Britain and America after Herman's Hermits recorded their own version and took it into the top ten in several countries.
Even the songs Davies gave away turned into minor hits for other bands. The Pretty Things released "A House in the Country" in July 1966 and took it to number 50 in the UK. It was an odd position for a songwriter to be in: his own group's album was underperforming while his cast-offs were climbing charts elsewhere. On Face to Face itself, Davies worked as musical director, arranger and even illustrator, shaping the record far beyond the role of a typical bandleader.
What nearly got lost in the delays and disputes was how much the album changed The Kinks. It was the first full statement of Davies as a writer of small English dramas rather than a supplier of riff-driven singles. The album is now considered an important milestone in the band's evolution and a key record of the psychedelic era. The period it opened, running from 1966 to 1971, was later called the golden age of Davies and The Kinks.
It was the first full statement of Davies as a writer of small English dramas rather than a supplier of riff-driven singles.
Face to Face arrived on vinyl at a moment when rock bands were expected to repeat themselves, not reinvent their entire sound. The Kinks chose reinvention, and paid for it with missed chart positions and label friction. But the album that seemed coolly received at the time became the foundation for everything the band would be remembered for afterwards.