‘All Day and All of the Night’ is a song by the English rock band the Kinks from 1964. Released as a single, it reached No. 2 in the UK on the Record Retailer chart and No. 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1965. The song was included on the Kinksize Hits EP in the UK and the Kinks' second American album, Kinks-Size (1965).
Like their previous hit ‘You Really Got Me’, the song is based on a power chord riff. Both songs are similar in beat and structure, with similar background vocals, progressions, and guitar solos. Dave Davies claimed that the song was where he "found his voice": “I liked the guitar sound on ‘All Day And All of the Night’, the second single we had. When they tried to develop amplifiers that had pre-gain and all, I thought it wasn't quite right, and I struggled with the sound for a while. I never liked Marshalls, because they sounded like everybody else. Then in the mid '70s I started using Peavey, and people said, "Nobody uses Peavey – country and western bands use them" [laughs]. I used to blow them up every night. I used two Peavey Maces together, and it was brilliant.”
Billboard described the song as a "potent entry," stating that the "raw, gutsy delivery is maintained along with raunchy guitar sound." Cash Box described it as a "raunchy-rock'er that should flip the teeners," similar to ‘You Really Got Me.’
Similarities between the song and the Doors' 1968 song, ‘Hello, I Love You’ have been pointed out. Ray Davies said on the topic: "My publisher wanted to sue. I was unwilling to do that. I think they cut a deal somewhere, but I don't know the details." Dave Davies added: "That one is the most irritating of all of them ... I did a show where I played All Day and All of the Night and stuck in a piece of Hello, I Love You. There was some response, there were a few smiles. But I've never understood why nobody's ever said anything about it. You can't say anything about the Doors. You're not allowed to."
Early Kinks were a band forged by American rock’n’blues. Their third single, You Really Got Me, which borrowed heavily from The Kingsmen’s Louie Louie, made No.1 in the UK in 1964. The distorted guitar riff by Ray’s brother Dave was a revelation. But it was the follow-up that really created the metal/punk blueprint. “The one that started it was All Day And All Of The Night,” Ray Davies explained to Classic Rock Magazine, “The sounds on that one, if they were made today, would sound like Green Day or a metal band.”
Labels – Pye (UK), Reprise (US)
Songwriter – Ray Davies
Producer – Shel Talmy
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]I'm not content to be with you in the daytime
Girl, I want to be with you all of the time
[Chorus]
The only time I feel all right is by your side
Girl, I want to be with you all of the time
All day and all of the night
All day and all of the night
All day and all of the night
[Verse 2]
I believe that you and me last forever
Oh yeah, all day and nighttime yours, leave me never
[Chorus]
The only time I feel alright is by your side
Girl, I want to be with you all of the time
All day and all of the night
All day and all of the night
Oh, come on
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 2]
I believe that you and me last forever
Oh yeah, all day and nighttime yours, leave me never
[Chorus]
The only time I feel alright is by your side
Girl, I want to be with you all of the time
All day and all of the night
All day and all of the night-time
All day and all of the night