The House of the Rising Sun
Long before The Animals took it to number one in 1964, "The House of the Rising Sun" was an anonymous American folk song, printed in 1925, first recorded in 1933 and collected in eastern Kentucky later that decade. Nobody knows who wrote it, and nobody agrees on what the house was.
- Also known as
- Rising Sun Blues; Rising Sun
- Origin
- United States, traditional; possibly older English roots
- First printed
- 1925, Robert Winslow Gordon, Adventure magazine
- First recording
- 6 Sep 1933, Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster, "Rising Sun Blues"
- Best-known version
- The Animals, 1964 (UK and US number one)
What the song is about
The song is a warning. The narrator looks back on a life ruined in a house in New Orleans called the Rising Sun, and tells the listener not to follow the same road. Early versions differ on who is singing: some are sung by a woman led astray, others by a man, a "rounder" or gambler. The Animals' version uses a male narrator; many earlier singers, including the 1930s Kentucky singers Alan Lomax recorded, sang it from a woman's point of view.
We don't print the full lyrics here. The song's roots are traditional, but most of the texts people know today come from later recorded arrangements. Listen to the early field recordings to hear how different the old versions are.
From folk song to hit: a timeline
| Year | Version | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1925 | Robert Winslow Gordon prints a text in Adventure magazine | Oldest published version |
| 1933 | Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster, "Rising Sun Blues" | Oldest known recording |
| 1937–38 | Alan Lomax records Georgia Turner, Dawson Henson and Bert Martin in eastern Kentucky | Field recordings that fed the folk revival |
| 1938 | Roy Acuff, "Rising Sun" | Early country recording |
| 1941 | Woody Guthrie | Brings it to the urban folk scene |
| 1942 | Josh White; Libby Holman | Popular recordings of the 1940s |
| 1944, 1948 | Lead Belly | Two recordings |
| 1962 | Bob Dylan, debut album | Uses Dave Van Ronk's arrangement |
| 1964 | The Animals | Number one in the UK (July) and on the US Billboard Hot 100 (three weeks from 5 Sep); often called the first folk-rock hit |
The Animals recorded their version in one take on 18 May 1964 at De Lane Lea Studios in London. Hilton Valentine's arpeggiated A minor guitar, Eric Burdon's vocal and Alan Price's organ turned a 4/4 folk song into a 6/8 rock record.
Was the house real?
Researchers have pointed to several New Orleans buildings, and none has been proven:
- a hotel called the Rising Sun on Conti Street in the French Quarter in the 1820s
- "Rising Sun Hall" on Cherokee Street in the late 1800s
- a saloon and restaurant on Decatur Street in the 1860s
- the Orleans Parish women's prison, which is how Dave Van Ronk understood it
- a house on Esplanade Avenue linked to a madam said to be called Marianne LeSoleil Levant
Some scholars think the house was never one place. In different versions it reads as a brothel, a gambling hall or a prison, which may be why the song has lasted: every singer can make it mean something.
Chords
The classic arrangement is in A minor and uses six chords. Folk versions are in 4/4; The Animals play it in 6/8 with a picked arpeggio.
Verse (repeat for every verse): | Am | C | D | F | | Am | C | E | E | | Am | C | D | F | | Am | E | Am | E |
The chord progression itself is not owned by anyone, so learning and playing it freely is fine. If you are a beginner, the F chord is the hard one; a simplified Fmaj7 (xx3210) works well.
More traditional songs: Shenandoah · Man of Constant Sorrow · all folk songs