Ray Davies composed "I Go to Sleep" on 23 May 1965.[1] Working on the piano at his parents' home in Fortis Green, north London,[2] he wrote the song while awaiting news about the birth of his and his wife's first child.[1] The following day, the song was one of seven for which he recorded demos at Regent Sound Studios in central London.[1][nb 1] The recording features a solo vocal from Davies while he plays piano.[3]
The Kinks never formally recorded the song.[4] Band biographer Johnny Rogan considers the lack of a Kinks recording strange, since the material they recorded around the same time was "obviously inferior".[5] Davies's demo remained unreleased until April1998, when it appeared as a bonus track on the CDremaster of Kinda Kinks.[5]Sanctuary Records later included it on the 2014 box set The Kinks Anthology 1964–1971.[6]
During the same US tour, after a Kinks show in Philadelphia on 19June, the singer Mary Wells expressed to Davies a desire to record the song, but he rejected the offer since it had already been promised to Lee.[11] Around 30June, as the American singer Cher finished recording her debut album at Gold Star Studios, Larry Page convinced her to record the song for that album.[7] The English Beat group the Applejacks issued a cover of the song as a single in the UK on 27 August 1965,[12] but it failed to chart.[13]
The German singer Marion (de) (later known as Marion Maerz) covered the song in 1967. Page produced the record in London. The song was released in West Germany and the UK. Marion performed this song as the first and only German female singer in the famous German music program Beat Club.[14]
"I Go to Sleep" was covered in 1981 by The Pretenders and released as a single from their second studio album Pretenders II.
"I Go to Sleep" had been rumoured to have been one of the first songs that Chrissie Hynde ever learned.[15] At the time of the song's recording, Hynde had been dating Davies, whom she had met after covering the Kinks track "Stop Your Sobbing."[15] The song features "a very strong late-'50s pop feel and flavor" according to Allmusic's Matthew Greenwald. The song also includes a French horn part; "The French horn in 'I Go to Sleep'…" Hynde recalled, "It's those little embellishments that capture my attention."[16]
^The biographer Doug Hinman hypothesises that all of the demo recordings may have been rushed to tape for potential clients at the Music Publishers Association's First British Song Festival, which was held that same day.[1]
^In a 2012 interview with BBC Radio, Davies suggested that the song was commissioned by Lee, adding that he wrote the song specifically with her voice in mind.[10]
Hinman, Doug (2004). The Kinks: All Day and All of the Night: Day-by-Day Concerts, Recordings and Broadcasts, 1961–1996. San Francisco, California: Backbeat Books. ISBN978-0-87930-765-3.
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