[Adder]

RIP, Hilton Valentine.

1964: House of the Rising Sun hit like a ton of bricks and a wind of fresh air. That guitar...day-um. Just made you stop and turn up the transistor radio.

[TNoldman]

I am 86 YO and still playing “House of the Rising Sun” !!!!

Prayers to Hilton and his Family. In Jesus’ Name I Pray. Amen.

[Steve_Seattle]

Animals songs typically had a dramatic, attention-getting opening: the guitar arpeggio in "House of the Rising Sun (which drove a million mothers of 14-year-old boys crazy as they played it on their guitars), the bold base-lines of "It's My Life," "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," and "Bring It On Home To Me," along with the guitar riffs of "Boom Boom," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," and "Inside Looking Out."

They also had a way of re-inventing blues standards, either jazzing them up or rocking them up: "Boom Boom," "I'm Mad Again," Dimples," and Bright Lights, Big City" come to mind. I also loved Alan Price's organ work (and Burdon's singing) on their version of "The Night Time is the Right time." Some of their best work was an songs that were never intended as singles.