Songfacts®:

• This dark and creepy track features a dissonant melody, a loud, distorted guitar riff and unsettling lyrics concerning a witchy girl from Ray Davies' youth in London. When Mojo magazine asked Ray Davies who "Wicked Annabella" was, he replied: "Annabella was too good for me. Sexually she was out of my league. She was very voluptuous and I was a shy kid. She knew how to take virginity and not feel anything. She had a dark side, but also a good side. Her innocence was crushed when she was young. You see, I do a back story on all of them. I'm like a detective."
• Ray's brother Dave Davies takes lead vocals. The Kinks frontman told Rolling Stone: "Her mother was a widow and she lived in a big house with her mother. It's very Dickensian. I cast the song for Dave because it had power chords in it."
• Though "Wicked Annabella" has never been performed live by The Kinks, it has become a personal concert favorite of Dave Davies when performing solo.