Records sent him a group biography from 1964. Like in the UK and Europe, the album failed to appear in any American charts. The failure continued a trend of the Kinks' studio albums being outsold by compilations collecting their mid-1960s hits; by 1969, the 1966 US compilation The Kinks Greatest Hits! had sold over 200,000 copies, while the combined American sales of both Village Green and Something Else were estimated to be 25,000. In June1969, it appeared on Cash Box "Basic Album Inventory", a list intended to indicate to wholesalers and retailers which LPs were selling steadily despite having failed to appear on the Cash Box Top 100 Album chart. Contemporary critical reception United Kingdom On release, Village Green gained favourable reviews from the majority of music critics. The album was reviewed in most contemporary UK pop music publications. Additionally, while discussions of popular music in broadsheet newspapers was still uncommon in 1968, critic Judith Simons provided a brief assessment of the album in London's Daily Express. Among British critics, Bob Dawbarn of Melody Maker declared in a feature review that the LP was "easily [the Kinks'] best". In another positive assessment, Disc and Music Echo reviewer stated that Ray "managed to bypass everything psychedelic and electronic" by continuing to focus on "simple, even rustic melodies with words of wisdom". The reviewer concluded that though the Kinks were no longer widely popular, Village Green indicated that Ray would likely continue to be one of Britain's best composers. The reviewer for Top Pops commented that the album's themes and styles varied greatly with considerable thought put into its lyrics and production. He concluded that the LP provided good value-for-money and expected he would listen to it consistently. In Simons's Daily Express review, she characterised the album as Ray's "song picture" representing "the gentler aspects of British life". She further suggested that its material could work well as a stage musical. In his September1968 preview of the twelve-track edition for NME, Altham reviewed the album favourably. He was especially fond of the title track, which he thought could have made it to in the UK had it been issued as a single. Having already published Altham's review of the original album, NME did not publish a review of the expanded edition in November. Altham reflected decades later that while he liked the album on first listening and thought it was musically and