Written and sung by bandleader Ray Davies, the song was recorded in March 1968 during sessions for the band's 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

[5] In Thomas's drama, Polly Garter is a promiscuous unmarried woman who cares for her many illegitimate children,[6] while in Ray's song, she is a party girl.

[8] Band biographer Andy Miller suggests Ray instead drew his idea for the character from the woman who ran the Kinks' fan club before she died of a heroin overdose.

A reviewer in Record Mirror magazine wrote that in contrast to its A-side, "Polly" is "more rhythmic, maybe with moments of crashingness", and helped provide the single with value-for-money.

[18] Though Ray did not include "Polly" on Village Green, when the Kinks' US recording contract required them to submit a new album to Reprise in June 1968,[21] it was among the fifteen tracks he sent to the label.

[22] The song featured on the label's test pressings of the album, planned for a late 1968 release in the US as Four More Respected Gentlemen, though the project was ultimately abandoned.