| "Sunny Afternoon" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 West German picture sleeve | ||||
| Single by the Kinks | ||||
| from the album Face to Face | ||||
| B-side | "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" | |||
| Released | 3 June 1966 | |||
| Recorded | 13 May 1966[1] | |||
| Studio | Pye, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:36 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) | Ray Davies | |||
| Producer(s) | Shel Talmy | |||
| The Kinks singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Sunny Afternoon" is a song by the Kinks, written by frontman Ray Davies.[7] The track later featured on the Face to Face album as well as being the title track for their 1967 compilation album. Like its contemporary "Taxman" by the Beatles, the song references the high levels of progressive tax taken by the British Labour government of Harold Wilson,[8][9] although it does so through the lens of an unsympathetic aristocrat bemoaning the loss of his vast unearned wealth.[10] Its strong music hall flavour and lyrical focus was part of a stylistic departure for the band (begun with 1965's "A Well Respected Man"), which had risen to fame in 1964–65 with a series of hard-driving, power-chord rock hits.[11]
- ^ Hinman 2004, p. 83.
- ^ Goldsmith 2019, p. 254; Paytress 2022.
- ^ Gelbart 2003, pp. 222–223.
- ^ "The Kinks Album Guide". Rolling Stone Magazine. 20 June 2019.
- ^ Sheffield, Rob (2004). "The Kinks". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 458–460. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- ^ McIver, Joel (2015). "The Kinks - "Sunny Afternoon". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die. New York: Universe. p. 174.
- ^ "6 Music - Kinks reunion exclusive". BBC. 4 October 2006. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
- ^ MacDonald 2005, p. 200.
- ^ Everett 2010, p. 48.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
songfactswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 102. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.