Kinks – Better Things

This song is really positive and positive is a good thing right now.

Ray Davies wrote this song in 1979 during the Low Budget sessions. It was written about Ray’s failing marriage to Yvonne Gunner…his second marriage. The band tried to record it for their album Low Budget that year, but couldn’t make it work.

It ended up on the Album “Give The People What They Want.” That was the first new Kinks album I ever bought. It’s a good album…some punk influence along with what the Kinks do best.

This song peaked at #92 in 1982 in the Billboard 100. The album peaked at #15 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1981.

From Songfacts

“Better Things,” written by Kinks’ frontman Ray Davies, was a single released in August of 1981 in the US, but not until January of 1982 in the UK. It is a cheerful, uplifting song, and so it fulfills what seemed to be a rule with The Kinks’ later albums, to end each album on a positive note: See also “Get Up” from Misfits, and “Life Goes On” from Sleepwalker.

The single’s initial copies came with a lagniappe 7-inch vinyl containing live versions of “Lola” and “David Watts,” which had been recorded on American tours in 1979 and 1980.

Artists who have covered this song include Bouncing Souls, Dar Williams, and Fountains of Wayne, the last of which was for a tribute album The Modern Genius of Ray Davies, arranged by the British music magazine Mojo.

The last track on Give The People What They Want, this song changes the tone of the album, which to this point is very unsettling and cynical (the penultimate song is “A Little Bit of Abuse”). “It’s just a change, a musical trick,” Ray Davies told Creem. “But I really like the song, ‘Better Things.’ It gives me hope. And after a song like ‘A Little Bit Of Abuse,’ you need some hope.”

Better Things

Here’s wishing you the bluest sky
And hoping something better comes tomorrow
Hoping all the verses rhyme
And the very best of choruses, too
Follow all the doubt and sadness
I know that better things are on the way

Here’s hoping all the days ahead
Won’t be as bitter as the ones behind you
Be an optimist instead
And somehow happiness will find you
Forget what happened yesterday
I know that better things are on the way

It’s really good to see you rocking out
And having fun
Living like you’ve just begun
Accept your life and what it brings
I hope tomorrow you’ll find better things
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things

Here’s wishing you the bluest sky
And hoping something better comes tomorrow
Hoping all the verses rhyme
And the very best of choruses, too
Follow all the doubt and sadness
I know that better things are on the way

I know you’ve got a lot of good things happening up ahead
The past is gone, it’s all been said
So here’s to what the future brings
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things
I hope tomorrow you’ll find better things
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things
I hope tomorrow you’ll find better things