Days (The Kinks song)


"Days" is a song by the Kinks, written by lead singer Ray Davies, released as a single in 1968. It also appeared on an early version of the album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. It now appears as a bonus track of the remastered CD. On the original Pye 7N 17573 label, the name of the song is "Day's" due to a grammatical error.

Release and reception

The song was an important single for Davies and the Kinks, coming in a year of declining commercial fortunes for the band. The song had been intended as an album track but after the relative failure of the previous single "Wonderboy", "Days" was rushed out as a single with an old unreleased track "She's Got Everything" as the B-side. It reached No. 12 on the UK chart, but failed to chart in the U.S. This did not help future releases however as the next four Kinks singles failed to reach the top 30 in the UK.
The song appeared on an advertisement for the Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet in 2011 and, in the 2013 comedy film, The Harry Hill Movie when Hill saves Abu the Hamster from being killed by a crazy vet.

Charts

covered "Days" on her second studio album Kite. It was released as the album's second single and reached No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart, the same position achieved by The Kinks in 1968. In Ireland MacColl's version charted seven places higher than the original, at No. 9. It was re-released in 1995, charting much lower, reaching only No. 42 in the UK. It is one of MacColl's most popular singles.

Background

"Days" was released as the second single from Kite, following "Free World". MacColl's label, Virgin, had intended to release "Days" as the lead single, but MacColl felt the first single from Kite had to be one which she wrote.
Recalling her version of "Days", MacColl told James Bennett in 1994: "I think my version is a bit slower , I wanted to give it the ABBA treatment. I wanted people to think that it's a Kirsty MacColl song when they hear it."

Music video

The video features MacColl in old fashioned clothing sitting on a meadow and riding in a boat whilst encountering animated animals. The video, which features MacColl's friend and songwriting partner Pete Glenister on guitar, was directed by Simon West and produced by Kate Sylvester. It was shot in April 1989 at Godalming.

Critical reception

On its release, Music & Media commented: "A tasteful, folky sing-along tune that many people will know by heart at the end of this summer." In a retrospective review of Kite, Stewart Mason of AllMusic described MacColl's version of "Days" as a "gorgeous cover" with "thick, lush harmonies".

Track listing

  1. "Days"
  2. "Happy"
  3. "El Paso"
  4. "Still Life"
  5. "Please Help Me, I'm Falling"
The single was released in multiple formats. Each featured "Days" and "Happy", and all bar the 7" and cassette featured "Still Life". Both CD formats had "Please Help Me, I'm Falling", whilst "El Paso" was only available on the 10".

Charts

Chart Peak
position

Other versions

The song was covered by a number of artists at the time including Petula Clark on her 1968 album Petula, The Hillsiders as a B-side to their 1969 single "Kentucky Woman" and James Last in an instrumental version on Non-Stop Dancing No. 7.
It was also covered by Luke Kelly of The Dubliners.
A version of the song recorded by Elvis Costello appeared on the soundtrack of the 1991 Wim Wenders film, Until the End of the World. It is also featured on his 1995 covers album Kojak Variety.
"Days/This Time Tomorrow" - Ray Davies and Mumford & Sons is featured on Ray Davies solo album See My Friends.
The song was also covered by Flo & Eddie on the album Flo & Eddie, which was originally released in 1974 and was re-released in 2008 as a double CD with The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie, which was originally released in 1972.
It is covered by Colin Meloy on Colin Meloy Sings The Kinks.