“I recall seeing Jimmy coming in and doing an overdub on that song”: Eddie Kramer says Jimmy Page did play on classic Kinks hit session

For decades there’s been an ongoing debate about whether Jimmy Page played guitar on The Kinks‘ 1964 hit You Really Got Me, and now Eddie Kramer has some more answers for us.

Speaking to Guitar World, the veteran producer says that Page – then a young session musician – did play on the song sessions, even if it never made the final version.

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Everyone from Deep Purple‘s Jon Lord to Dave Davies of The Kinks to Page himself has weighed in at one point or another, but now Kramer is saying that he did see Page recording a part for the classic track.

He says, “I met Jimmy while he was working with the Kinks in the early ’60s when they were doing You Really Got Me. I know the Davies brothers will say otherwise, but I recall seeing Jimmy coming in and doing an overdub on that song. There’s some contention about that, but that’s how I remember it.”

Yep, guitarist Dave and his vocalist brother Ray have both said that Page didn’t play on the recording. In 2014, Dave called out “lies” from the BBC on social media, after they said in a Radio 2 documentary that Page had played on it, as NME reported at the time.

Kramer’s recollections of the events surrounding the recording of You Really Got Me are bound to be met with some strong opposition, owing to the fact the Davies brothers themselves have previously gone on record to state that Page did not play on the track. In a statement, he said that he “invented the distorted guitar sound and played the solo on You Really Got Me and Ray Davies played rhythm guitar,” per Rolling Stone.

Meanwhile, Shel Talmy, who produced the track, told The Guardian in 2013, “We used Jimmy Page on some Kinks stuff so Ray didn’t have to play rhythm guitar as well as sing – but, contrary to myth, Jimmy didn’t play on You Really Got Me.”

And, even Page himself – who would go on to join The Yardbirds and then co-founded Led Zeppelin – said, “This is a result of internet meddling and muddling. I wasn’t on You Really Got Me, but I did play on the Kinks’ records,” via Rolling Stone.

For Kramer’s part, he did say that he remembered Page recording an overdub – it could have been a minor part of the final track, meaning that the truth could be somewhere between his recollection and those of Page, Talmy, and the Davies brothers. Or, there may have been a version of You Really Got Me with Page on, but this might not have been the one to actually get released.