"You Really Got Me" is a rock song written by Ray Davies and performed by his band, The Kinks. It was released as the group's third single, in August 1964, and reached Number 1 on the UK singles chart the following month, staying there for two weeks. It was the group's breakthrough hit, and established them as one of the top British Invasion acts in the United States. It was later included on the Kinks' debut album, The Kinks.
"You Really Got Me" was built around parallel 5ths and octaves (power chords), and was to prove heavily influential on later rock and roll musicians, particularly in the heavy metal genre. It is considered to be the prototypical heavy metal and proto-punk song. As critic Denise Sullivan of All Music Guide writes, "'You Really Got Me' remains a blueprint song in the hard rock and heavy metal arsenal." blank">Review of "You Really Got Me" from _All Music Guide
The song appears at number 82 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. In early 2005, the song was voted the best British song of the 1955-1965 decade in a BBC radio poll. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 9 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.