Ray Davies

Legendary Kinks frontman Ray Davies has a body of work unparalleled in pop music. As the poet laureate of the 1960s British Invasion, his witty but melancholy vignettes of everyday life spanned the social spectrum. Astonishingly, the 2006 album OTHER PEOPLES LIVES was Davies's first solo album of all new material (he also released STORYTELLER in 1998, a mix of covers, Kinks songs, and solo material). When it reached the U.K. top 30, it became the first Davies-associated album to chart since SOMETHING ELSE BY THE KINKS, in February 1968. Davies survived a shooting in 2004 in New Orleans, when the then 59-year-old attempted to apprehend a mugger.