The True Story Behind Van Halen's Cover Of You Really Got Me By The Kinks

In October 1977, guitar impresario Eddie Van Halen, along with his brother Alex on drums, vocalist David Lee Roth, and bassist Michael Anthony, went into Sunset Sound recording studio in Los Angeles with producer Ted Templeton. They quickly knocked out 25 tunes, some in one take. One of these was the Kinks' hit "You Really Got Me" from the British band's 1964 debut album, written by lead singer and rhythm guitar player Ray Davies. Van Halen eventually pared their self-titled debut album down to 11 songs, and among the keepers was the Kinks tune.

When Templeton and their label Warner Brothers released the Kinks' cover as Van Halen's first single, the band was disappointed. They felt one of their originals would have been a better choice, but the band was never the same after "You Really Got Me." The song, which introduced Eddie's unique finger tapping playing style, caught fire. Not long after it hit the airwaves in late January 1978, the track reached the Top 40 charts in both America and the United Kingdom. From that moment on, Van Halen would forever be connected to the song. Interestingly, though, the band's relationship with "You Really Got Me" predates not only their first album but even the band's name.

Van Halen's relationship to the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" has a long history. Back in 1973, around the time they first began performing the song, the group was still known as Mammoth. David Lee Roth had just joined the band and Michael Anthony had yet to replace the original bass player Mark Stone (Anthony joined the following year). They lived in Pasadena, California, and they played anywhere they could, which meant being willing to play a lot of cover songs. In his book "Van Halen: Exuberant California, Zen Rock'n'roll," author John Scanlan called the band "a kind of human jukebox" with a repertoire of 200 covers.

"You Really Got Me" was just one of several Kinks songs that Van Halen played during their early years. "Back in our bar days, I bought a double-album from K-Tel or something that had 30 Kinks tunes on it," Roth later recalled. "We learned all of one side and played them into the dirt during the club gigs, twice a night each one, because they sounded good and they were great to dance to." But "You Really Got Me" stuck around well after Van Halen had hit the big time, becoming one of their most-played played concert songs.

For Van Halen, the song "You Really Got Me" was a part of both their lows and highs. Back in the early '70s, when they were still called Mammoth, they were playing a nightly 45-minute set at a biker venue when a fight broke out. "One guy whipped out a hunting knife and stabbed the other one right in front of us while we were playing 'You Really Got Me,'" Eddie Van Halen recalled in "Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography." Even after this shocking incident, the band continued to play the Kinks' song and loved it enough to include it on their self-titled debut album. 

The initial success of "You Really Got Me" helped the band sell more than 10 million copies of "Van Halen." After they recorded the album, but before its release, Eddie brought the tapes to the home of Barry Brandt, the drummer of rival band Angel, to play for them. Not long after, Eddie reportedly learned Angel was recording their own cover of the Kinks' classic, forcing Warner Brothers to release Van Halen's version early. Angel singer Punky Meadows later denied this story. Regardless, on January 28, 1978, the label released Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me" backed with "Atomic Punk" — with the album following a few weeks later — and helped change the course of rock 'n' roll.

Still itching for some music history? Check out the most important rock bands of the 1960s.