Writer: Ray Davies
Producer: Ray Davies
Recorded: Spring 1970 at Morgan Studios in London England
Released: June 1970
| Players: | Ray Davies — vocals, guitar Dave Davies — guitar, vocals Pete Quaife — bass, vocals John Gosling — keyboards Mick Avory — drums |
| Album: | Lola Vs. Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One (Reprise, 1970) |
“Lola” helped the Kinks break a commercial slump. In the U.K., it hit Number One, replacing Free's “All Right Now.”
It peaked at Number Nine in the U.S., the group's first hit here since “Sunny Afternoon” in 1966.
“Lola” is one of the most controversial songs in the Kinks repertoire, detailing a meeting and implied romance with a transvestite. Leader Ray Daviesexplained, “The song is actually meant to show that things aren't always what they seem. In such realms, you could think one thing and something else would be hidden, lurking in the shadow. I like writing songs with stories about people. I live in a strange world to some, but I think the world is a lot stranger… if you read into the lyric, you'll see the song is only about friendship.”
Of the song's main character, Davies said, “Lola is a real person and a very good friend of mine, a dancer, actually. I'm not going to tell you what sex the person is, though. It's a joke song but it's very real. I think that sex is very unimportant in friendships. That's why I wrote the song.”
Davies altered the song after it was first recorded, introducing “an old trick — find a hook in the song that isn't the melody, and repeat it. I used the three-chord guitar riff that was between the verses and stuck it on the front.”
The subject matter helped earn the song a radio ban in Australia. The BBC, meanwhile, made the group record a version of the song with the words “cherry cola” rather than “Coca Cola.”
The album Lola Vs. Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One peaked at Number 35 on the Billboard 200.