The Animals, an English rock band, released the traditional folk song: The House of the Rising Sun, 60 years ago to great commercial success. It’s a ballad as a cautionary tale about living a life in New Orleans on the wrong side of right. The song possibly goes back to, in one version or another, England in the 1600s.

Alan Price, founding member and keyboardist of The Animals arranged the folk song with a bluesy rock twist. The band recorded the song in May of 1964 and released it as a single the following month.

The song attained the number 1 position on the English and U.S. charts and has been ranked by the Rolling Stone magazine and RIAA as one of the best songs of the 20^th century. Along with The Beatles and Peter & Gordon, The Animals were part of the British Invasion of 64 that controlled the top chart positions in the U.S. for that year.

Source: All Music. Song Facts. Wikipedia. Graphic is the MGM cover.