Snubbed!: Five great artists who never won a Grammy Award

THE KINKS

Ray Davies – I’m sorry – Sir Raymond Douglas Davies CBE, was knighted in 2017. Yep, good enough for a knighthood but not a Grammy. In 1980, just two years after the Beatles and a year after the Stones, the Kinks were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They scored seven Top Twenty singles and five Top Twenty albums between the ‘60s and the ‘80s.

I do remember Ray Davies presenting Cyndi Lauper with the Best New Artist Award in 1984 (she was escorted onto the stage by Hulk Hogan), but to the best of my knowledge, the Kinks have never even been nominated for a Grammy. Still, they have been recognized by some of the biggest punk acts in history, including the Ramones and the Clash, for their influence.

Davies was able to blend his pop-punk sensibilities with some of the most literate songwriting ever heard in pop music. Over time, he moved well beyond those punk roots, looking back to music hall and pastoral music, as well as forward to disco and synthpop.

“You Really Got Me,” one of Rock & Roll’s foundational singles, has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, but the Kinks never did win an individual Grammy.

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