<P> I had learned it sometime in the 1950s, from a recording by Hally Wood, the Texas singer and collector, who had got it from an Alan Lomax field recording by a Kentucky woman named Georgia Turner . I put a different spin on it by altering the chords and using a bass line that descended in half steps--a common enough progression in jazz, but unusual among folksingers . By the early 1960s, the song had become one of my signature pieces, and I could hardly get off the stage without doing it . </P> <P> Then, one evening in 1962, I was sitting at my usual table in the back of the Kettle of Fish, and Dylan came slouching in . He had been up at the Columbia studios with John Hammond, doing his first album . He was being very mysterioso about the whole thing, and nobody I knew had been to any of the sessions except Suze, his lady . I pumped him for information, but he was vague . Everything was going fine and, "Hey, would it be okay for me to record your arrangement of'House of the Rising Sun?"' Oh, shit . "Jeez, Bobby, I'm going into the studio to do that myself in a few weeks . Can't it wait until your next album?" A long pause . "Uh - oh ." I did not like the sound of that . "What exactly do you mean,' Uh - oh'?" "Well," he said sheepishly, "I've already recorded it ." </P> <Table> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> "The House of the Rising Sun" </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Artwork for US release </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Single by The Animals </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> from the album The Animals </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> B - side </Th> <Td> "Talkin' ' bout You" </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Released </Th> <Td> June 19, 1964 (1964 - 06 - 19) (UK) August 1964 (USA) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Format </Th> <Td> 7 - inch single </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Recorded </Th> <Td> May 18, 1964 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Genre </Th> <Td> Folk rock </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Length </Th> <Td> 2: 59, 4: 29 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Label </Th> <Td> Columbia Graphophone </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Songwriter (s) </Th> <Td> Traditional, arranged by Alan Price </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Producer (s) </Th> <Td> Mickie Most </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> The Animals singles chronology </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> <Table> <Tr> <Td> "Baby Let Me Take You Home" (1964) </Td> <Td> "The House of the Rising Sun" (1964) </Td> <Td> "I'm Crying" (1964) </Td> </Tr> </Table> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> <P> </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> "Baby Let Me Take You Home" (1964) </Td> <Td> "House of the Rising Sun" (1964) </Td> <Td> "I'm Crying" (1964) </Td> </Tr> </Table> </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> "The House of the Rising Sun" </Th> </Tr>

House of the rising sun a real place