Sony’s Legacy to Release Several Classic Kinks Recordings

A series of recordings by the Kinks are being rolled out over the next three months by Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, which has exclusively licensed the North American rights to albums made by the British Invasion sensations for RCA Records and Arista between 1971 and 1985.

On Sept. 9, 16 Kinks remastered album titles are being made available as hi-resolution digital downloads, including 1971’s “Muswell Hillbillies” (a reference to the band’s North London origins in Muswell Hill) and the 1973-74 rock opera “Preservation Act 1 and 2,” both originally released on RCA; as well as 1983’s “State of Confusion” (Arista), which featured one of the band’s biggest hits of that decade, “Come Dancing.”

In addition, on Oct. 14 Legacy will mark the 50th anniversary of the Kinks eponymous debut album with “The Essential Kinks,” a career-spanning anthology that brings together recordings made for Pye/Reprise, RCA, Arista and Columbia labels, with liner notes by David Bowie. Such enduring hits as “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night,” “Tired of Waiting for You,” “A Well Respected Man,” “Sunny Afternoon” and a live version of “Lola” will be included on the retrospective collection.

And on Nov. 10, an expanded, remastered CD/DVD deluxe edition of “Muswell Hillbillies” will be made available with nine bonus tracks and footage of rare 1972 television appearances previously unavailable in North America.

“It is terrific to be reunited with the company that inspired and was involved with one of the finest Kinks albums, ‘Phobia’,” said the group’s primary songwriter Ray Davies in a statement.

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