The Kinks - Never Say Yes (Song Edit) (1965)

Today happens to be my birthday, and I'm a huge Kinks fan. They're my second favorite band behind only the Beatles. So I was very psyched today when a musical friend of mine, MZ, sent me a Kinks song from 1965 that apparently has never been bootlegged before and I'd never even heard of! It must have been played on a radio show recently, because a DJ talked over the start and end of the song. Luckily, the talking was only over some instrumental bits that were repeated elsewhere in the song, so I was able to edit the talking out. The song quality is excellent, and it's a wonderful lost gem of a song. If you're a Kinks fan, you need to hear this!

I was able to dig up some information about this demo. Incredibly, it was meant for Elvis Presley to sing in one of his many movies, but that never came to be. I found a mention of it in a book called "The Kinks: All Day and All of the Night, Day by Day Concerts, Recordings, and Broadcasts, 1961-1996," by Doug Hinman. Here's the relevant excerpt, after the book mentioned that Ray Davies recorded a demo of the song "All Night Stand" in December 1965:

"It's possible but unconfirmed that Ray recorded a second demo, "Never Say Yes." Elvis Presley's UK publisher had asked him to submit one or two songs for the next Presley film "Spinout," which was first intended to be titled "Never Say Yes."  Ray submitted "Never Say Yes" and possibly one other. Although the song(s) were never used, film producer Joe Pasternak apparently did express an interest in it/them."

So we can definitely confirm that factoid now, since the recording exists. ;) Although it's just a demo, it's a full band demo. I assume the Kinks were the backing band, since Davies wasn't known to play with other bands at the time.

I've also updated my stray tracks album for the time period, "Kwyet Kinks," and I've included the song in that as well. Here's the link to the album with the song in it:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-kinks-kwyet-kinks-1965.html