Dave Davies Biography

Musician Dave Davies was born in 1947 in the Fortis Green area of London. Long before Davies rose to fame in his role as the lead guitarist for the band the Kinks, he grew up in a large family of eight children. Influenced by his parents’ love of music, Dave embraced the guitar, piano, and other instruments as he developed his talents throughout the years. By the time he was a young teen, it was clear that the guitar would likely become his instrument of choice, although Dave grew up to become a talented multi-instrumentalist.

In the early 1960’s, Dave Davies founded the band the Kinks alongside his brother Ray. The two brought Pete Quaife into the fold to make the group a trio, and then Mick Avory on drums to create a quartet. Thanks to Davies’s unique talent, the Kinks signature sound featured a distorted power chord which appeared on the group’s first big hit, “You Really Got Me.” In the early years of the group’s inception, Davies and the Kinks toured extensively, establishing a growing fan base in local areas and eventually garnering major label interest.

The Kinks’ debut album, You Really Got Me, rose into the top five on the U.K. charts and also garnered international success upon its release in 1964. For the next four decades, the Kinks would give music some of its most memorable hits, including the chart-topping singles: “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night,” “Tired of Waiting for You,” “Sunny Afternoon,” “Waterloo Sunset,” “Lola,” “Destroyer,” and “Death of a Clown,” which rose to the number three spot on the UK charts and established Dave Davies’s solo career. As a solo artist, Dave Davies has released the albums: Dave Davies (1980), Glamour (1981), Chosen People (1983), Bug (2002), Fractured Mindz (2007) and I Will Be Me (2013.) Additional singles from Davies include: “Susannah’s Still Alive,” “Lincoln County,” and “Hold My Hand.” 

Dave Davies was ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003. Davies continues to perform and record as a solo musician, but he also recently reunited with the Kinks to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the group. The Kinks performed on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2014 to commemorate the event, making the performance one of the highest rated in the show’s history. Davies’s most recent album, Rippin’ Up Time, was also released in 2014.