The Animals

""I'm just a soul whose intentions are good Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood""

The Animals were a British Invasion band from Newcastle with heavy blues influences. One of several bands managed by producer Mickie Most (Hermans Hermits was another), their peak period was the mid-1960s. Their most famous hit was a cover of the traditional folk song "House of the Rising Sun" and became one of the first non-Beatles songs to top the charts in America after the Fab Four had made their debut.

Lead singer Eric Burdon was a Blues fan who later joined the group War and became a major exponent of Funk, Hard Rock and Psychedelic Rock in the early 1970s. The group was notable for its prominent use of a Hammond organ played by Alan Price; they are among the first rock groups to use an electric keyboard instrument in their songs (and yes, they did probably beat the Beatles to it).

The band had a setback in 1965 when their invitation to The Ed Sullivan Show cost them a member who was afraid of flying. By the end of the 1960s, Burdon had embraced the hippie movement and started using LSD, becoming distant from the rest of the group. The band split and went their separate ways; Burdon became lead singer of the aforementioned War, Alan Price became a folk singer-songwriter and bassist Chas Chandler became famous for discovering and managing Jimi Hendrix and Slade in the early 1970s.

Other hits of theirs are "We've Gotta Get Out of This Place" (the most successful hit written by members of the band) and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."


 * Blues Rock
 * Breakup Breakout: Eric Burdon and Chas Chandler, although the latter became successful as a manager rather than a musician.
 * The British Invasion
 * The Cover Changes the Gender: "House of the Rising Sun," probably, though the song itself is old enough that it's hard to determine whether the original singer was meant to be male or female.
 * Cover Version: They had more covers of blues songs than original tunes, including "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Mess Around."
 * Greatest Hits Album: The Most of the Animals was an early one. The name of the record was a pun based on the name of producer Mickie Most, which had previously been used for another band he'd prodcued (The Most of Hermans Hermits).
 * I Am the Band: Again, Eric Burdon, so much so that they changed their name to Eric Burdon & the Animals in 1967.