Looking back 60 years, how did a folk song with a guitar riff become a hit? If this song was rated on American Bandstand, I imagine it would be low. (***kids rated songs-it had a good beat-was easy to dance to) it’s a 12/8 blues.
The Animals LP was one of my first LP record possessions.
Eric Burdon is still on the road playing gigs. There’s a clip of the Animals on one of those UK band cavalcade’s where Eric steals the show, until The Beatles play.
This tune was an anthem for guitar players. Vox Continental and Farfisa organs were the classic sound to play this tune.
Alan Price played on the record, he’s credited with the arrangement.
Charles Chandler, the bass player would become the producer/manager of Jimi Hendrix.
Alan Price can be seen in my favorite music documentary, the Bob Dylan title, Don’t Look Back.
House of the Rising Sun was popular for kids in 1964, and continued when I became a night club lounge lizard drummer in 1967. It was number 38 of 100 on the 1964 Billboard Chart. I’ve played this tune many times.
When I was a teenager hearing this music, it was just good music, without a genre.
I heard The Yardbirds in 1967. I didn’t know The Animals, Yardbirds, Stones, those British Invasion groups were playing American Blues. Music they’d discovered from Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters records.
The Beatles, The Stones, Animals and Dave Clark Five were the first wave of UK British Invasion bands to make an appearance on The Ed Sullivan show in 1964.
Playing on that show was the big gig.