The Kinks entered the ’80s much stronger than many of their British Invasion counterparts. During 1981, the year that the band released Give the People What They Want, the Who dropped the mostly forgettable Face Dances, Ringo released Stop and Smell the Roses, and Maca didn’t release anything. As for Rod Stewart? It was the year of “Young Turks.” Bleh. The Stones dropped  Tattoo You, their last essential album in 1981, so it wasn’t all bad news.

But the Kinks nailed it with Give the People What They Want, and that’s likely because Ray Davies remained a rock solid songwriter. U.S. fans got “Destroyer” as the album’s lead single, a mash-up of “All Day and All of the Night” and the Lola story revisited. Not very adventurous, but a great reminder of what the band was capable of.  Follow up single “Better Things” performed better on the charts, but like its predecessor it didn’t crack the top 40.

“Predictable” was the album’s third single, but only in the U.K. It was an odd marketing choice, given that the video got quite a bit of airplay on MTV.

That makes this little 7-inch picture disc an import, which is pretty cool but it doesn’t do much for its value. You can find a copy for 3-5 bucks online without any problem, but I’d be surprised if you found one in the wild. Happy hunting.