Song · The Kinks
“David Watts” by The Kinks
From the album Something Else by The Kinks (1967)
“David Watts” by The Kinks appears on 14 radio countdowns from 1 station between 1999 and 2014. It was first released in 1967 on the album Something Else by The Kinks. Its best result is #1236 on the CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,224 alternative song of all time.
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"David Watts" turned up on Something Else by the Kinks in 1967, and in America and on the Continent it rode on the flip side of "Autumn Almanac". Ray Davies wrote and sings it, and it's a schoolyard portrait with a sly grin: a boy gazing at a classmate, David Watts, who seems to glide through life untouched, all set to a jaunty, stomping beat.
What exactly the narrator feels is left deliberately up for grabs. It can be heard as plain envy, AllMusic caught a schoolboy crush, and Jon Savage counted it among Davies' most pointedly homoerotic songs; Davies himself has said it is partly about a gay guy and partly about looking up to the head boy, and he prefers not to choose. The Kinks were still playing it in 1980, when a live take from Syracuse, New York, landed on One for the Road.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 1245 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 1245 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 1252 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 1251 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2003 | 1236 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2004 | 1236 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 1238 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
| 2007 | 1632 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007) | 2008 |
| 2008 | 1588 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008) | 2009 |
| 2009 | 1598 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009) | 2010 |
| 2010 | 1639 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010) | 2011 |
| 2011 | 1701 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011) | 2011 |
| 2013 | 1667 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013) | 2012 |
| 2014 | 1697 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2014 Songs of All-Time (2014) | 2013 |
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