The Kinks The Kinks hold a unique place in the history of popular music. Alongside contemporaries The Beatles and The Stones, The Kinks, with songwriter and driving force Ray Davies, burst out of North London with a string of global number one hits. The Kinks were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and in the same year, were presented with the Ivor Novello Award for ‘outstanding services to popular music’. The Kinks remain a seminal influence on today’s singer songwriters and bands.