page_title: Waterloo Sunset
section_title: Legacy and accolades
hierarchical_section_title: Waterloo Sunset / Legacy and accolades
caption_attribution_description: English: Main entrance to London Waterloo railway station, on the north-east side Deutsch: Haupteingang des Bahnhofs Waterloo in London auf der Nord-Ost Seite
context_page_description: "Waterloo Sunset" is a song by British rock band the Kinks. It was released as a single in 1967, and featured on their album Something Else by the Kinks. Composed and produced by Kinks frontman Ray Davies, "Waterloo Sunset" is one of the band's best known and most acclaimed songs, and ranked number 42 on "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". It is also their first single that is available in true stereo.
  The record reached number 2 on the British charts in mid 1967. It was a top 10 hit in Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe. In North America, "Waterloo Sunset" was released as a single but it failed to chart.
context_section_description: In the UK, the song is commonly considered to be Davies' most famous work, and it has been "regarded by many as the apogee of the swinging sixties". Highly esteemed for its musical and lyrical qualities, the song is not uncommonly the subject of study in university arts courses. Davies largely dismisses such praise and has even suggested that he would like to go back and alter some of the lyrics; most professionals, however, generally side with the observation of Ken Garner, a lecturer at Caledonian University in Glasgow, who said: "Davies, like all the best singer-songwriters, is intensely self-critical."
  Pop music journalist Robert Christgau has called the song "the most beautiful song in the English language".  Pete Townshend of the Who has called it "divine" and "a masterpiece". AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine concurred, citing it as "possibly the most beautiful song of the rock and roll era". In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at number 42 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, the highest-placing Kinks song on the list.
  Ray Davies performed "Waterloo Sunset" at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. A subsequent reissue of the Kinks' original single entered the UK charts at #47.
caption: Waterloo Station, London.
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