213. House of the Rising Sun (Traditional American)

This well-known ballad about a girl who ends up in a New Orleans brothel was first recorded by black bluesman Texas Alexander in 1928. It was also recorded by Clarence Ashley (1934), who learnt it from his grandfather, Enoch Ashley, Woody Guthrie in 1941, Lead Belly in 1948 and Glenn Yarbrough in 1957. Other recordings were made by Josh White, Dave van Ronk, Nina Simone, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan (1962), Charlie Byrd, Roy Acuff, The Almanac Singers (1941), The Weavers, Peter, Paul & Mary, Henry Mancini, Dolly Parton, David Allan Coe, John Fahey, Waylon Jennings, Tim Hardin, Buster Poindexter, Marianne Faithful and Tracy Chapman. And I haven't even mentioned The Animals yet! Theirs is the best known version of the song, which Eric Burdon first heard sung by Josh White. In their version the narrator is a boy, which rather obscures the fact that it is meant to be a song about prostitution. It was a huge hit for them. Now, of course, everybody expects people singing this song to cover the Animals version. Another group to have a hit with the song was Frijid Pink, though it was basically an Animals cover. This song was requested by Kabish. Lyrics and chords of this song can be found here: http://raymondfolk.wikifoundry.com/page/The+House+of+the+Rising+Sun For lyrics and chords of all my songs, please see my website: http://raymondfolk.wikifoundry.com