The Kinks – Lola

Ray Davies Flew Six Thousand Miles To Change Two Words

Released on June twelfth, 1970, in the UK and June twenty-eighth in the United States from their album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One, The Kinks’ “Lola” peaked at number two in Britain and number nine in America, topping charts in Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa while selling over two million copies worldwide. The track became the band’s comeback hit after their five-year American touring ban, reviving their commercial fortunes at the exact moment they needed it most. What most fans don’t know is that Ray Davies made a six-thousand-mile round-trip flight from New York to London and back on June third, 1970, interrupting their American tour mid-show just to change two words in the lyrics. The BBC refused to play the original version because it mentioned Coca-Cola, violating their strict product placement policy. Davies needed to replace it with cherry cola, and he couldn’t get the performance right on his first emergency flight, forcing a second transatlantic journey to nail two words that saved the song from oblivion.

The single entered the UK chart in late June and climbed to number two, where it remained blocked from the summit. It spent ten weeks on the chart total and became an unexpected smash that revitalized the band after years of declining fortunes. In America, it debuted at number sixty-five on August twenty-third and peaked at number nine on October eighteenth, spending fourteen weeks on the Hot 100. The track reached number one in Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa, hit number two in Canada and Germany, and cracked the top five in Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland. Cash Box and Record World praised it enthusiastically, with the NME calling it an engaging and sparkling piece with a gay Latin flavour. Creem critic Dave Marsh recognized it as the first significantly blatant gay-rock ballad, acknowledging its cultural significance beyond commercial success. In 1980, a live version from One for the Road was released as a single, reaching number eighty-one in America and returning to number one in the Netherlands, matching the studio version’s peak a decade earlier.

Ray Davies wrote the song in April 1970 following a break where he’d acted in the Play for Today film The Long Distance Piano Player. He later explained that manager Robert Wace spent a night in Paris dancing with what he thought was a woman, only discovering toward dawn that his partner’s stubble was showing through. Wace was too drunk to notice or care, inspiring Davies to craft a narrative about innocent infatuation colliding with sexual ambiguity. Drummer Mick Avory claimed Carnaby Street PR Michael McGrath was key to the inspiration, inviting him and Davies to drag queen acts and transsexual pubs in Earls Court, secret clubs where Davies observed the Soho scene. Davies later told Q magazine he’d danced with a beautiful blonde in a Parisian club before seeing stubble in daylight, blending multiple experiences into the song’s narrative. He struggled with writing an opening that would sell the song, but when his one-year-old daughter started crawling around singing la la, la la Lola, he knew it would work. He’d deliberately aimed for something people could recognize in the first five seconds, writing it to be a great record rather than just a great song.

The Kinks recorded multiple versions throughout April and May 1970 at Morgan Studios in London, experimenting with different keys, beginnings, and styles before settling on the final arrangement. Davies told Radio 4 it wasn’t just the song but the musical design that took time, explaining he needed a special acoustic guitar sound that was sonorous, growling, with attack to it. He trawled Soho’s instrument shops for a Martin guitar like his folk-blues hero Big Bill Broonzy used, combining it with a nineteen thirty-eight Dobro resonator guitar bought for one hundred fifty pounds. He tracked the Martin three times slightly out of tune so it resonated, then doubled the Dobro to create that distinctive clanging intro. New keyboardist John Gosling auditioned by playing piano parts on the final backing track in May, getting hired immediately. The production required sixteen-track equipment that let them layer instruments carefully, building from that power-chord beginning into an acoustic strum that felt like a modern London folk song. Davies’ vocals captured the narrator’s confusion, wonder, and ultimate acceptance across verses that walk listeners through a night they’ll never forget.

Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One arrived on November twenty-seventh, 1970, as a satirical appraisal of the music industry. The album peaked at number thirty-five in America and performed respectably in Britain, with Rolling Stone calling it the best Kinks album yet while Robert Christgau gave it a lukewarm review despite calling the single astounding. The concept album attacked the exploitative machinery that consumed artists, with Powerman representing corporate greed and corruption. A planned Part Two never materialized, with the band recording Muswell Hillbillies instead. The album’s gatefold sleeve used the cherry cola lyric in print, though the stereo album track retained the original Coca-Cola reference, creating confusion that persists decades later. Beyond this track, the album showcased Ray Davies’ strongest songwriting, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine later describing it as a wildly unfocused but nonetheless dazzling tour de force. The lifted American touring ban in nineteen sixty-nine had given them hope, but cancelled dates and illness plagued their comeback attempts until this single broke through and proved they could still compete.

The song faced censorship worldwide for varying reasons. The BBC objected to Coca-Cola, Australian stations banned it entirely for controversial subject matter, and American stations faded it out before the line revealing that Lola is also a man. Some Australian stations made crude edits that sounded like the record jumped a groove, removing I’m glad I’m a man and so’s Lola. Davies addressed the controversy in Record Mirror, saying it really doesn’t matter what sex Lola is, I think she’s all right. The BBC’s product placement concern proved more immediately threatening than moral panic, forcing Davies’ desperate transatlantic flights. When he first attempted the lyric change after their Minnesota gig, he couldn’t capture the performance to his satisfaction and had to return for American shows before flying back to London on June third to nail it properly. The absurdity of making two emergency round trips just to change Coca-Cola to cherry cola demonstrates how analog recording worked in 1970—no Pro Tools, no Logic, just get on a plane and sing it again until it’s right.

“Lola” endures as The Kinks’ most culturally significant single and one of rock’s earliest explorations of gender fluidity reaching mainstream audiences. Transgender activist Mara Keisling, then an eleven-year-old boy in Pennsylvania, heard it on the radio and suddenly felt less alone, later calling it lifesaving because somebody was talking directly to her about this shameful secret. The song’s message of acceptance and loving someone exactly as they are resonated with LGBT listeners and any outsider who felt different or rejected, arriving just three years after England decriminalized homosexuality. Davies’ quote about writing it to be a great record that people could recognize in five seconds captures his commercial instincts, but the deeper achievement was normalizing trans experiences for millions who’d never considered such possibilities. That Davies flew twelve thousand miles total just to change two words shows the dedication required in the analog era, proving that sometimes the best songs demand extraordinary effort for the smallest changes that make all the difference.