The Kinks had agreed to play at the South East R&B Festival at Rectory Field in Blackheath, London, an event sponsored by Melody Maker magazine.
[5] "All of My Friends Were There" is played in the style of early 20th century music hall,[6] especially the verses which feature a quickly delivered vocal and what musicologist Allan F. Moore terms an "'oompah' accompanimental pattern".
[8][a] Davies sings his lead vocal in a Cockney accent, similar to the music hall singer Gus Elen, a favourite of his father.
[21] The recording features an electric organ played in a church-like style, something Rogan thinks furthers the "quizzical nature" of the singer's experiences.
He suggested the song demonstrates the "weird control" that Davies displays at his best, its "not-quite surreal tone" similar to American musician Randy Newman.
[24] In a retrospective assessment, Morgan Enos of Billboard described the song as "bubbly and hilarious", writing that Davies transformed his original embarrassment "into gold".
[26] Heylin considers the song to be a major statement on Davies's part and anticipatory of the band's succeeding concept albums, though he writes it is thematically separate from the LP's central themes.
[27] Author Mark Doyle instead considers the song another of the album's character studies, its unnamed narrator "clearly another inhabitant of the village green".