Lola

This song is about a guy who meets a girl (Lola) in a club who takes him home and rocks his world. The twist comes when we find out that Lola is a man. As stated in The Kinks: The Official Biography, Ray Davies wrote the lyrics after their manager got drunk at a club and started dancing with what he thought was a woman. Toward the end of the night, his stubble started showing, but their manager was too tanked to notice. Said Davies: "'Lola' was a love song, and the person they fall in love with is a transvestite. It's not their fault - they didn't know - but you know it's not going to last. It was based on a story about my manager." Ray Davies revealed to Q magazine in a 2016 interview: "The song came out of an experience in a club in Paris. I was dancing with this beautiful blonde, then we went out into the daylight and I saw her stubble. " He added; "So I drew on that but colored it in, made it more interesting lyrically."

The Kinks came up with the riff after messing around with open strings on guitars. The group's guitarist, Dave Davies, contended that he deserved a songwriting credit on the track, leading to additional friction with his brother Ray, who got the sole composer credit.

"Lola" revived The Kinks in America, where they hadn't had a Top 40 hit since "Sunny Afternoon" in 1966. Their first American tour in 1965 did not go well - they clashed with their promoter, drew sparse crowds, and often played short sets. The group was so petulant, the American Federation of Musicians refused to issue them permits, effectively banning them from the country until 1969. By the time "Lola" was released, most Americans hadn't heard from the Kinks in years, but the song proved very popular and this time, the band could promote it. The next single, "Apeman," reached #45, but the next few Kinks albums took them in a more theatrical direction. They didn't have another substantial hit in the US until "Come Dancing" in 1982.