In 1967, Ray Davies was asked to review The Beatles album ‘Sgt Pepper’. There was just one problem

The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a huge commercial success after its May 1967 release, but early responses from fellow musicians were mixed. In a review for the music paper Disc, Ray Davies of The Kinks sounded cautiously positive, while noting that he had heard only two tracks and could not judge the full album.

Davies praised “When I’m 64” as “a very good laugh” and admired its production, and also liked “Good Morning, Good Morning”, though he thought he may have missed some of its farmyard sounds. His measured reaction contrasted with his earlier criticism of the Beatles’ Revolver; the article also notes that Sgt Pepper helped establish the album era and may have influenced Davies as he worked on The Kinks’ own concept album.