House
England
Animals
About Animals
Hometown
Newcastle Upon Tyne, England
Formed
1963
Genre
House
Of the first run of British bands who rose to fame in the wake of the Beatles American breakthrough, none were tougher and more forbidding than the Animals. They were also among the first English acts to break internationally while aligning themselves with the blues. While the Rolling Stones were steeped in that genre, it would take them years to summon the sort of menace delivered on the Animals' second single, 1964's "House of the Rising Sun." They moved into more-pop-oriented territory over the next two years without stripping songs like "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" of their intensity. Vocalist Eric Burdon would steer the Animals in a more adventurous, psychedelic-infused direction after the dissolution of the original lineup in 1966. Their 1977 reunion album Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted showed that the group's spirit had not dimmed.
