Is ‘All Day and All Of The Night’ by The Kinks the ultimate rock and roll song?
Think of a rock and roll song. What comes to mind? Some catchy Beatles chorus? A Chuck Berry classic? Something more pop-infused like Elvis Presley, or punk like The Who? Or is it that one opening riff, one so simple and so effective that it feels like it captures the whole genre; duh, duh duh, duh du-du-du-duh, “All day, and all of the night”. Is the song that comes to mind The Kinks?
Released in 1964, only one year after the band formed, The Kinks wasted no time getting the hits out there. ‘All Day and All Of The Night’ was also released only two months after ‘You Really Got Me’, another track that feels utterly defining of the rock and roll sound. As part of the British invasion leading the charge while The Beatles were still only just getting started, The Kinks seemed to nail it immediately, understanding what it is that makes a perfect song rock and roll song and nailing it instantly by making something thrilling and exciting yet that had proven to be totally timeless.
But in order to declare the ultimate rock and roll track, there needs to be a conversation about what makes a rock and roll song. When searching, the term is defined as “a type of popular dance music originating in the 1950s, characterised by a heavy beat and simple melodies. Rock and roll was an amalgam of black rhythm and blues and white country music, usually based around a twelve-bar structure and an instrumentation of guitar, double bass, and drums.”
‘All Day and All Of The Night’ hits every element. It has a heavy beat; after the opening riff that instantly grabs the listener’s attention, Bobby Graham, the drummer on the track, hits his kit for one big opening kick before holding the track down for the rest of the run time. It has simple melodies, and the track doesn’t do anything fancy but remains catchy, making it nearly impossible not to tap your toe to it. It settles on a merge of blues and country; the Davies brothers, on their shared guitar duty, clearly know something about old-school blues as they imbue their guitar lines with the classic seductive style that the genre nails. There’s nothing twee here that early pop-leaning rock and roll make by white men in bands often had, instead, it has the grittiness of blues or even elements of what would become punk. It feels ahead of its time, catapulting straight into the realm of rock and roll, later populated by acts like Led Zeppelin, who pushed the genre forward, ticking all the boxes for the standard definition and then taking it further.
But what makes the track feel so defining and so epitomising of the genre is that it feels pioneering but also timeless, recognisable and understandable. You only need to hear ‘All Day and All Of The Night’ once to know it. You only need to listen to it once for it to be stuck in your head. Play that opening riff to any rock fans, and they’ll be able to tell you what tune it is. Even decades later, it feels so fresh and catchy that it’s stayed on repeat and recognisable. It epitomises the argument that rock and roll, often considered music at its purest with nothing but a band of talented players who know their instruments with no need for fuss, shouldn’t be trendy.
It’s a track that isn’t trying to be anything else; it’s not trying to copy anyone, or move with the times, or do something shocking or out of the box. It’s just a great song, built with simple yet effective elements and instrumentation so rich that it’s still keeping fans fed and full and hooked today.
Arguably, it’s also defining as other rock and roll acts considered to be the best of the best got caught out copying it. The royalties for The Doors’ ‘Hello, I Love You’, another track often considered to be one of the genre’s best, go straight to Ray Davies’ pocket after a UK court ruled in favour of The Kinks during a trial over the song’s similarity. The band’s guitarist, Robby Krieger, always denied the connection, claiming instead that they were trying to emulate the vibe of Cream’s ‘Sunshine Of My Love’, but doesn’t that just make this whole argument more convincing? Listen to the Doors track, then the Cream one, and immediately chase it up with The Kinks’ original. The impact of the British band’s tune becomes undeniable.
Both have strong, gripping openings like the Kinks’; they then drop into a repeated riff structure that goes round and round, getting stuck in your head, while the drums keep the beat going. They all have hooky choruses and an instrumental climax in the middle eight. It could be argued that Cream and The Doors are merely following the blueprint of a rock and roll song, but doesn’t that prove the point that The Kinks and this tune were a vital force in sketching out that map to success?
Think of a rock and roll song, and ‘All Day and All Of The Night’ is a track that comes to mind quickly. It’s right up there on the list of the most defining tracks ever offered up to the genre as the Davies brothers and bassist Pete Quaife made something timeless, everlastingly catch and arguably perfect.
