The Great Lost Kinks Album

The Great Lost Kinks Album
Compilation album by the Kinks
Released	25 January 1973
Recorded	1966–1970
Studio	Pye, Riverside and Morgan, London
Genre	Pop[1]
Length	36:08
Label	Reprise
Producer	Ray Davies Shel Talmy
The Kinks US chronology
Everybody's in Show-Biz (1972) The Great Lost Kinks Album (1973) Preservation Act 1 (1973)

The Great Lost Kinks Album is a compilation album by the English rock band the Kinks. Released in the United States in January 1973, it features material recorded by the group between 1966 and 1970 that had mostly gone unreleased. The compilation served to satisfy Reprise Records after executives determined that the Kinks contractually owed them one more album, despite the band's departure from the label in 1971.

The Great Lost Kinks Album offered the debut of many previously unreleased tracks, while others had only been released as non-album singles. Most of its songs date to the sessions for the 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society and were delivered by Ray Davies to Reprise in July 1969 out of a contractual obligation. Musician John Mendelsohn wrote liner notes for the album which extensively derided Davies' contemporary songwriting in comparison to his late 1960s work. Both contemporary and retrospective critics have generally described the compilation as uneven. Several suggested that its joining of strong and weak tracks meant it would only appeal to devoted Kinks fans.

The album's sales were driven by fans of the band's late 1960s work, peaking at No. 145 on Billboard's Top LP's & Tape chart, additionally reaching No. 78 and No. 74 on Cash Box and Record World's charts, respectively. The Kinks had no involvement in the album's preparation and Davies only learned of its existence after its release. He initiated legal action against Reprise over the album, resulting in its 1975 deletion from the label's catalogue, though it remained popular among Kinks fans into the 2000s for its inclusion of rare and otherwise unobtainable tracks. Several of its songs were later made available as bonus tracks on the 2004 CD reissue of Village Green.