I know it’s not Friday but 1960s record producer Shel Talmy died earlier last week; I saw the notice a bit too late for my posting. A Chicagoan, he moved to Britain in 1962. After blagging his way into a job in the record business in London he was in charge of the mixing desk for the first hits of both the Kinks and The Who. He also produced early David Bowie tracks and Friday on my Mind for the Easybeats, the song after which my category is named, plus Mike D’Abo’s debut as lead singer for Manfred Mann, Just Like a Woman.

The Kinks: You Really Got Me

The Who: Can’t Explain

Sheldon (Shel) Talmy: 11/8/1937-13/1120/24. So it goes.

Neither of these two songs was originally going to be featured in this series (despite them being the progenitors of heavy metal.)

However, the sad death recently of founder member Pete Quaife and the consequent possible unsuitability of the video for a Kinks song that I did intend to include meant I lean this week towards these early examples of his work with The Kinks.

The first is a rather rough live recording.

The Kinks: All Day And All Of The Night – Live

The second is from the studio.

The Kinks: You Really Got Me

Pete Quaife; 31/12/43 – 23/6/10. So it goes.