LOS ANGELES, April 13, 2011 -- One of the most important and influential artists in rock history, The Kinks have been credited by many as the crucial Sixties genesis for everything from heavy metal to garage punk to Britpop.  Now the first three albums from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group will be issued in two-CD Deluxe Editions from UMe on April 19, 2011.  For the first time, the packages for Kinks, Kinda Kinks and The Kink Kontroversy bring together the original LPs with contemporaneous EPs, BBC performances and alternate, mono, demo and single versions, all remastered from the original tapes.  

Kinks - Deluxe Edition: The centerpiece of the 1964 debut album from lead singer/rhythm guitarist Ray Davies, lead guitarist and brother Dave Davies, bassist Pete Quaife and drummer Mick Avory is "You Really Got Me," with its riff to end all riffs.  Yet the follow up single "All Day And All Of The Night" also charted #7 in the U.S.  The Deluxe Edition adds an astonishing 42 more selections to the original U.K. release, including the entire album in mono and the Kinks-Size EP.

Kinda Kinks - Deluxe Edition: Unlike its predecessor which included numerous covers, this 1965 album was almost wholly penned by Ray Davies, including the melancholy "Tired Of Waiting For You," which at #6 was the band's highest-ever U.S. charter.  The Deluxe Edition adds 23 more selections, among them the Kwyet Kinks EP (with "A Well Respected Man," the original Britpop number which also ushered in Davies as social commentator), the single "See My Friends" (the first example of Indian influence in rock music) and several songs The Kinks never released (notably a demo of "I Go To Sleep," recorded byPeggy Lee and later a hit for The Pretenders).

The Kink Kontroversy - Deluxe Edition: The band's second album of 1965 transitioned from R&B rave-ups such as "Milk Cow Blues" and the pop beauty of "Till The End Of The Day" to indications of the future direction of Ray Davies' songwriting with the laidback garage punk of "The World Keeps Going Round" and "I'm On An Island."  The Deluxe Edition adds 17 more selections, highlighted by the band's first single of 1966, "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion."

Today, some opine that The Kinks were instrumental in turning rock 'n' roll into rock.  Thanks to the added material on their first three albums, and with more Deluxe Editions coming in the near future, that evolution has never been more audible.

SOURCE Universal Music Enterprises