'The House of the Rising Sun' by The Animals: The making of the haunting folk blues masterpiece

16 January 2026, 12:36

From an old folk standard to the top of the UK and US charts.

'The House of the Rising Sun' sounds immortal.

The bluesy folk rock arrangement of The Animals' masterful version, loaded with spiralling organ sounds and frontman Eric Burdon's throaty wail, made it sound like nothing that came before.

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But the song itself had a long history before Burdon and co picked it up and dusted it off for their breakthrough track.

Do you know where the song came from or which major stars played it before (and after) The Animals most definitely made it their own?

Read on for everything you need to know about one of the most thrilling songs in rock history.

Who wrote 'The House of the Rising Sun'?

A nice and easy question to get us started, right? Wrong.

Cards on the table. We don't know. It's a traditional folk song, passed down generation by generation orally and aurally.

By the time people started writing it down, the first author of the song was long lost to the sands of time.

We should probably say "authors", in fact. Like a game of telephone, folk songs didn't pass down through the decades unchanged, but were tugged and tweaked and interpreted by everyone who played them.

The House Of The Rising Sun (Rising Sun Blues)

It's thought to have evolved from traditional English folk, though was collected in Appalachia in the US in the 1930s. It was later listed in the Roud Folk Song Index database compiled by Steve Roud in the 1970s (number 6393, in case you were wondering).

The oldest published version popped up in Adventure Magazine in 1925 in a column called "Old Songs That Men Have Sung" - so an oldie already then.

It was musicologist Alan Lomax who made one of the first known recordings, taping miner's daughter Georgia Turner's performance in Kentucky under the name 'Rising Sun Blues'.

When The Animals released their version, it was controversially credited to "Traditional, arr. by Alan Price". More on that later.

Who performed 'The House of the Rising Sun' before The Animals and how did they get hold of the song?

Leadbelly - In New Orleans (House Of The Rising Sun)

After Lomax's field recording it was a folk free for all! Name a major folk artist of the 1940s or 1950s and they likely did a version.

Woody Guthrie in 1941. Josh White in 1942. Libby Holman in 1942. Loads and loads of others. There was also Holman/White collaboration in 1950 that's said to have introduced new words that featured in many subsequent versions.

Lead Belly did a couple of versions, Glenn Yarhrough. The Weavers. Pete Seger.

Joni Mitchell - House Of The Rising Sun (Official Audio)

Then the folk-pop-(blues-soul) crossover names: Andy Griffith, Judy Collins, Miriam Makeba, Joan Baez, Nina Simone and Tim Hardin.

Then came Bob Dylan, who "borrowed" a version by his pal Dave Van Ronk.

"I pumped him for information, but he was vague," Dave said about Bob Dylan recording his self-titled debut collection of folk standards.

"Everything was going fine and, 'Hey, would it be okay for me to record your arrangement of 'House of the Rising Sun?''.

Bob Dylan - House of the Risin' Sun (Official Audio)

"Oh, s**t. 'Jeez, Bobby, I'm going into the studio to do that myself in a few weeks. Can't it wait until your next album?'.

"A long pause. 'Uh-oh'. I did not like the sound of that. What exactly do you mean, 'Uh-oh'?'. 'Well,' he said sheepishly, 'I've already recorded it'."

Meanwhile. Eric Burdon had heard Johnny Handle playing the song in a Newcastle club and his band The Animals soon incorporated it into their set as a closer.

The crowd loved it and they took the time to nip into the De Lane Lea Studios on Kingsway in London to lay it down.

Who played on and produced The Animals version of 'The House of the Rising Sun'?

The Animals - House Of The Rising Sun (Music Video) [4K HD]

The Animals' producer Mickie Most didn't originally fancy the track much, but seeing the reaction it was getting on the road soon changed his mind.

He was behind the desk but gave all the props to the band themselves.

"Everything was in the right place," Most is quoted as saying in 1,000 UK Number One Hits. "It only took 15 minutes to make so I can't take much credit for the production."

The producer was an enthusiastic cheerleader for the song, though, and pushed for its release despite its 4:29 runtime – pretty lengthy in the era of the 2-3 minute single.

The Animals "House Of The Rising Sun" on The Ed Sullivan Show

On the song you had Eric Burdon on vocals, Hilton Valentine on guitar, Chas Chandler on bass, Alan Price on the ominous organ, and John Steel on drums and percussion.

Alan Price's work on the single was vital, but so was that of his bandmates. That he was the only one to earn songwriting credits of what became an absolutely massive and enduring hit didn't go down particularly well with the rest of The Animals.

"With the stroke of a pen, the rest of the Animals were screwed," Burdon complained in Chasing the Rising Sun: The Journey of an American Song.

He added that had they given credit to the full band instead "the biggest mistake of tour lives would never have happened".

When did The Animals release 'The House of the Rising Sun' and where did it get in the charts?

The Animals recorded 'The House of the Rising Sun' on May 18, 1964 and didn't hang about too long to get it out.

It hit shelves on June 19, 1964, and was an absolutely massive smash.

While their debut 'Baby Let Me Take You Home' had done pretty well to chart at number 21 in the UK, it stalled just outside the top 100 in the US.

'The House of the Rising Sun' went to number one on both sides of the Atlantic (wedged between The Supremes 'Where Did My Love Go?' in the US and Roy Orbison's' 'Oh, Pretty Women' in the US) and made Eric Burdon and The Animals superstars.

Who covered 'The House of the Rising Sun' after The Animals?

House of the Rising Sun

While 'The House of the Rising Sun' was much-performed before The Animals' version, it's fair to say that they absolutely made it their own.

But that hasn't stopped plenty of other artists from having a crack at it, with many taking a lead from Eric Burdon and co, but lots also going back to the song's earlier roots, too.

Tracy Chapman "House Of The Rising Sun", (LIVE) The Animals (Cover) From The Album "Telling Stories"

Dave Van Ronk belatedly got his version out later in 1964. Marianne Faithful and The Supremes got theirs out before the end of the year.

Then came The Platters, The Everly Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Conway Twitty, Hank Williams Jr, Tracy Chapman, Sinead O'Connor, The Trashmen and Peter, Paul, and Mary.

More recent covers followed from Bon Jovi, The Spencer Davis Group, Holly Johnson, Jimmy Nail, Muse, Toto, Roger McGuinn and Russell Watson.