On this day in music history:September 08,1964. The House of the Rising Sun is a traditional folk song, sometimes called Rising Sun Blues. It tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the English rock group The Animals, was a number one hit in the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, Finland, and Canada. Recorded in just one take on 18 May 1964, it started with a famous electric guitar A minor chord arpeggio by Hilton Valentine. The performance took off with Burdons lead vocal, which has been variously described as howling, soulful, and as ...deep and gravelly as the north-east English coal town of Newcastle that spawned him. Finally, Alan Prices pulsating organ part (played on a Vox Continental) completed the sound. Burdon later said, We were looking for a song that would grab peoples attention. House of the Rising Sun was a trans-Atlantic hit: after having reached the top of the UK pop singles chart in July 1964, it topped the U.S. pop singles chart two months later in September, when it became the first British Invasion number one unconnected with The Beatles; it was the groups breakthrough hit in both countries and became their signature song. The song was less successful in Ireland, only peaking at #10 and dropping off the charts one week later. Ireland had the showband scene and did not consider rhythm and blues a very popular type of music. The song was also a hit in a number of other countries. Heres a video. youtube/watch?v=OKdN5aSC4HE
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 00:01:31 +0000
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