The Song That Turned Folk Music Into a Rock Storm

The Song That Turned Folk Music Into a Rock Storm

There are songs that become hits.

There are songs that become classics.

And then there are songs that arrive on the radio sounding so completely different from everything around them that you immediately wonder what on earth you've just heard.

“The House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals was one of those records.

In 1964, while the British Invasion was in full swing and The Beatles seemed to be occupying the top of the charts almost permanently, five lads from Newcastle came along with a song that was dark, dramatic, several minutes too long by conventional pop standards — and absolutely impossible to ignore.

It worked rather well.

Forget the Three-Minute Pop Single

By 1964, pop singles were generally expected to get in, make their point and get out again before anyone had time to turn the radio off.

“The House of the Rising Sun” wasn't interested in such rules.

The Animals' recording ran for roughly four and a half minutes, which was considered remarkably long for a pop single at the time.

But instead of trimming it down to something more radio-friendly, producer Mickie Most decided to release the recording at full length in Britain.

A brave decision.

Possibly a slightly mad one.

Definitely the right one.

The result was a record that sounded nothing like the cheerful beat-pop filling the charts around it.

An Old Song Gets a New Identity

One of the fascinating things about “The House of the Rising Sun” is that The Animals didn't write it.

Its origins disappear deep into traditional folk and blues history, with versions of the song circulating in America long before the 1960s. The earliest known commercial recording, “Rising Sun Blues,” was made by Tom Ashley and Gwen Foster in 1933, although the song is almost certainly older than that.

By the folk revival of the 1950s and early 1960s, it had already been recorded by several performers, including Josh White and Bob Dylan.

So when Eric Burdon and The Animals got hold of it, they weren't exactly discovering an unknown song.

They were discovering what it could become.

And what they turned it into was extraordinary.

Eric Burdon Didn't Want to Sound Like Chuck Berry

The Animals were touring with Chuck Berry when they were developing their version of the song.

According to Eric Burdon, the band wanted to find something different from the rock-and-roll material being played by the other acts on the bill. They were heavily influenced by American R&B and blues, but they didn't want to simply copy what everyone else was doing.

“The House of the Rising Sun” gave them the opportunity.

And judging by Burdon's recollections, audiences noticed.

The Animals were playing the song live and discovered that it had a powerful effect on people. It wasn't just another number in the set — it grabbed the audience's attention.

So they decided it needed to be recorded.

Quickly.

One Take. About 15 Minutes. That's It.

Here's the bit that makes modern recording studios look rather complicated.

The Animals travelled to London on a Sunday, took their equipment with them and headed for De Lane Lea Studios.

Burdon recalled that the recording was completed in one take, following a soundcheck, and that the whole session took around 15 minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

I've spent longer trying to find the right track on a streaming service.

According to Burdon, the recording session cost just £34.

And what did they get for their money?

One of the most recognisable recordings of the 1960s.

And Then There's That Guitar

Before Eric Burdon even sings a word, Hilton Valentine's guitar announces that something rather serious is about to happen.

That opening arpeggio has become one of the most recognisable guitar introductions in popular music.

Valentine later explained that he adapted the chord sequence from the version he had heard from Bob Dylan.

Then the organ arrives.

Then Burdon's voice.

And suddenly this isn't a polite little folk song anymore.

It's a drama.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame described The Animals' version as turning the traditional song into a full-scale rock performance, driven by Alan Price's organ and Burdon's powerful vocal.

It's difficult to think of many records where the opening few seconds tell you quite so clearly that you're about to hear something special.

The Record Company Thought It Was Too Long

There was another problem.

The song was dark.

It dealt with desperation, hardship and a life gone badly wrong.

It was hardly the obvious choice for a summer pop hit.

And at around four and a half minutes, it was also considerably longer than the singles competing for attention on the radio.

But the band and their producer took the gamble.

The British release reached Number One in the UK in July 1964, staying on the chart for 12 weeks.

Then it crossed the Atlantic and reached Number One in the United States later that year.

Suddenly, that four-and-a-half-minute folk-rock monster didn't look quite so long after all.

Did It Help Bob Dylan Go Electric?

Now we get into one of those wonderful pieces of rock history where fact and legend have become rather comfortably intertwined.

Bob Dylan had recorded “The House of the Rising Sun” for his 1962 debut album.

Eric Burdon believed The Animals' dramatically electrified version may have influenced Dylan's eventual move towards electric music.

The GRAMMY account records Burdon making exactly that suggestion, although it's safer to describe the connection as a fascinating possibility rather than a proven cause-and-effect story.

Either way, The Animals had demonstrated something important:

You could take a traditional folk song, plug it into an electric band and turn it into something enormous.

And the world was listening.

The Animals Were More Than One Song

It's easy to think of The Animals as simply “the House of the Rising Sun band.”

They were much more than that.

The original group — Eric Burdon, Hilton Valentine, Alan Price, Chas Chandler and John Steel — came out of Newcastle's R&B scene and became one of the key British groups bringing American blues and soul influences into the mainstream.

After “House of the Rising Sun,” they produced a remarkable run of records including “Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” “It's My Life” and “Don't Bring Me Down.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted The Animals in 1994, recognising their place in the British Invasion and their distinctive, blues-heavy sound.

Sixty Years Later, It Still Sounds Dangerous

This is what I love about the record.

Play it today and it doesn't sound like a quaint piece of 1964 nostalgia.

It still sounds slightly dangerous.

The guitar is instantly recognisable.

The organ still creates that feeling of impending doom.

And Eric Burdon's vocal sounds as though he's telling you a story that he really, really wants you to hear.

There are no unnecessary frills.

No attempt to make it cheerful.

No concern about whether the song fits neatly into the current chart format.

Just five musicians taking an old folk song and giving it a completely new life.

And perhaps that's the secret.

Great records don't necessarily make the past sound old.

Sometimes they make the past sound timeless.

A Song With a Life of Its Own

“The House of the Rising Sun” was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 1999, recognition of its lasting cultural and musical importance.

Hilton Valentine's opening guitar figure has become part of musical history.

Eric Burdon's voice remains instantly identifiable.

And the recording itself still sounds remarkably powerful more than six decades after that hurried session in London.

For me, that's one of the great pleasures of looking back at the music of the 1960s.

You find yourself returning to songs you thought you knew, only to discover another story hiding underneath them.

A forgotten detail.

A remarkable recording session.

A decision that could easily have gone the other way.

And occasionally, a £34 studio bill that somehow turns into musical history.

That's the magic of the records we grew up with.

They don't just remind us of where we were.

They remind us why we fell in love with music in the first place.

And when those opening chords of “The House of the Rising Sun” come through the speakers, I suspect very few of us are going anywhere for the next four and a half minutes.

In My Life Radio — every song has a story. Every life has a soundtrack.

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