Help me find this "House of the Rising Sun" cover

Cafe Society
1

So I’m listening to Pandora late at night. I have my classic rock station on, and on comes a rendition of “House of the Rising Sun” I’ve never heard before. It’s nothing at all like the recording the Animals made famous in 1964 - it starts out with an acoustic guitar, with organ and drums kicking in later, but it definitely sounds like Eric Burdon on vocals.

Shazam insists that this recording is just the original version off the 1964 album “The Animals”, which it obviously isn’t. Pandora identifies it as coming off the album “The Animals (The Best)”. My basic Google-Fu suggests this album was released in 2015, by a label called DV Digital (which doesn’t produce any relevant search results) and that this is the cover art (corroborated by Pandora itself). Pandora itself provides a track listing for the album, but the mystery only deepens there - the samples provided on that page are identical to the old ‘60s recordings. Pandora offers links to buy the album, but none of them seem to be functional and/or lead to Animals albums completely different than the one the song purportedly comes from. Despite the fact that I sourced that cover art link from an Amazon URL, I haven’t had any luck finding the disc for sale on Amazon. On top of that, Wikipedia itself doesn’t list any album by that name in the Aminals’ discography.

For reference, I have produced this very low-fi (and hopefully in accordance with board rules) re-recording by leaning my cell phone directly against one of my speakers while I played it from Pandora.

Does anyone have the slightest idea where this version came from? It is some kind of weird import, or bootleg, or a cover by a completely different artist that Pandora and Shazam have somehow misidentified? I’d love to get a legitimate download of it if only I could figure out where to look.

(PS: It’s definitely not the Frijid Pink cover.) :slight_smile:

2

I don’t think that’s Eric Burdon.

3

NM

4

I think this is it. I searched for “House of the Rising Sun” on Amazon digital music and then sorted the results by time length. The song appears on multiple rock compilation albums listed as being by “The Animals”, although I’m not sure if it is, since none of the albums it appears on are The Animals’ albums.

Also, here’s an ace orchestral version by the 101 Strings orchestra.

5

I think Walken After Midnight has got it.

But, FWIW, here.
(UK Version)
US version, here.

6

Listening to the other songs on that album, it sure doesn’t sound like it was recorded in the '60s or ‘70s, and instead sounds like a modern recording. The Animals’ discography page on Wikipedia also doesn’t show any recent re-recordings, and the song doesn’t appear on any reunion albums. So I’m guessing it’s by a cover/tribute band.

7

There was a group called “The Best” that Wikipedia says broke up in 1994.

Maybe some other group is now going by “The Best” and the title of the album is “The Animals”?

8

Perhaps Pete Best is up to his old tricks again.

9

While this mystery appears to have been solved, I’ll take this opportunity to post The Blind Boys of Alabama singing *Amazing Grace *to the tune of House of the Rising Sun. It’s stellar, even if you’re an atheist like me :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR1tOVd4PCk

10

When I’m listening to Pandora and a song comes on I like I just snap a screen capture so I can investigate it later.

11

Permit me, if you will (or even if you won’t), to piggy-back onto this thread with my own request for a certain rendition of House of the Rising Sun. A bit over a year ago, in this thread:
What’s your favorite “haunting” song?
I posted this request:

So with Smapti’s on-topic thread here, I thought I might try yet again. The version I’m looking for is not the 101 Strings version linked up-thread – it’s even more “hauntingly beautiful” than that. I suspect, if anyone here knows of the version of which I speak, you’ll know you know it. Anyone?

12

Probably not this one, I’m guessing. Not so much haunting as funky.

This one may be closer. Flutes not strings, though.

13

Nice find, guys! Strange that there seems to be so little information about who actually recorded this, though. Seems like it must be one of those nameless studio bands that record sound-alike versions of songs for royalties purposes, and yet they distinctly don’t sound enough like the originals that there could be any mistaking them. There’s probably an interesting story about why this album exists.

14

This same cover showed up on my Pandora feed again this morning. It’s now attributed to the album “The Animals (Greatest Hits)”, which I imagine is the same copycat album that was discovered upthread.

I wonder - what’s the business model here? You’ve got a nameless band, anonymously recording covers which are obviously musically distinct from the originals, and you’re releasing them under the original band’s name, on streaming services that the listener has already paid for.

Where’s the “Step 3: Profit!” here?

15

Bump!

Way back in July 2017 I posted this. Anyone know of this haunting instrumental arrangement of House Of The Rising Sun, a.k.a. Casa Del Sol? After all this time, I came across it!

It’s titled Casa Del Sol as interpreted by Frank DeVol. It’s not all strings, as I had remembered it from 50-some years ago. This upload to YouTube is a bit scratchy, but still a haunting listen.

16

Not what you’re looking for but here’s a good cover.