The Kinks’ Ray Davies has said he never wanted to release ‘Waterloo Sunset’.

The track was released as a single in May 1967 and went on to feature on the album ‘Something Else’ later that year.

Despite now being one of the band’s classic songs, Davies has said in a new interview that had wanted to keep the song private. “I got my family together – my sister was over from Australia and there was Jackie my niece and a couple of my nephews – and I played them the acetate of it about 20 times,” he told MOJO.

“I said, ‘That’s for us and I don’t want it to come out’. It was so important to me I didn’t want it to come out. Shows I’m not a very good businessman. I just wanted it to be ours.”

Davies added that he didn’t begrudge the track being released, but was “pleased that people connected to it in the right way”. “And regardless of the nationality thing, it’s two young lovers looking at the sunset seeing their future,” he said.

Last year, Davies’ brother Dave confirmed that the siblings were in the studio working on new music together. The much-loved band first signalled their intention to return back in June 2018 when Ray disclosed that he was reforming The Kinks with Dave and original drummer Mick Avory, and that the band were set to begin work on new material.

As well as new material, the brothers were also working on reviving old and unreleased Kinks tracks. “We keep going backwards and listening to a lot of old stuff. Some of that is very good, and some of it needs a bit of work,” Dave Davies said. “Some we recorded but never used. Others don’t have finished vocals or they need other embellishments.