"Sunny Afternoon" is a song by The Kinks, written by chief songwriter Ray Davies. Like its contemporary "Taxman" by The Beatles, the song references the high levels of progressive tax taken by the British Labour government of Harold Wilson. The track later featured on the Face to Face album as well as being the title track for their 1967 compilation album. Its strong Music Hall flavour and lyrical focus was part of a stylistic departure for the band (begun with 1965's "A Well Respected Man"), which had risen to fame in 1964-65 with a series of hard-driving, power-chord rock hits.
Released as a single on 3 June 1966, it went to No. 1 on the UK singles charts on 7 July 1966, remaining there for two weeks. The track also went to No. 1 in Ireland on 18 July 1966. In America, it peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart early autumn 1966. "Sunny Afternoon" was placed at No. 200 on Pitchfork Media's list of The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s.
The promotional video for the single featured the band performing in a cold, snowy environment.
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Famous quotes containing the words sunny and/or afternoon:
“It’s like a jumble of huts in a jungle somewhere. I don’t understand how you can live there. It’s really, completely dead. Walk along the street, there’s nothing moving. I’ve lived in small Spanish fishing villages which were literally sunny all day long everyday of the week, but they weren’t as boring as Los Angeles.”
—Truman Capote (1924–1984)
“An afternoon of nurses and rumours;
The provinces of his body revolted,
The squares of his mind were empty,
Silence invaded the suburbs,”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)