Kinky choir: Ray Davies reinterprets Kinks classics for 65 voices

With a massive songbook spanning more than 44 years that flirts with heavy metal, vaudeville and Broadway show tunes, Kinks frontman Ray Davies returns to the stage in Los Angeles with an unexpected innovation: a 65-voice choir.

Often referred to as rock's most literate songwriter, Davies had the ambitious idea to collaborate with the 65-strong Crouch End Festival Chorus at the BBC's Electric Proms event in London in 2007 to reinvent his classic material. The result was a new album, "The Kinks Choral Collection," due out Nov. 10, and a concert tour that touches down in L.A. on Nov. 14 at the Orpheum Theatre.

It's fairly easy to imagine Kinks classics like "Waterloo Sunset," "Shangri-La" and "Days" getting the choral treatment, but I'll reserve judgment for the harder rocking numbers, like "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" until after the show.

— Richard Metzger