Song of the day: The Animals- The House Of The Rising Sun

Possibly this is a song which makes you have more questions than answers. Where is the House of the Rising Sun? That’s one of the questions that no-one is really sure of. The origin of the song is better known: it started as a traditional folk song. The first and oldest recorded version was recorded in 1934 by Clarence “Tom” Ashley and Gwen Foster. They could sing it since the song was passed on by the grandfather of Clarence Ashley. Through several artists, this song came to Lead Belly in 1944, was it recorded in 1958 by Pete Seeger, and the version of Bob Dylan followed in 1961. Via several other ways, the song was sung in a pub, where Eric Burdon heard it. He was a member of the Animals and wanted to sing it to have something else for the tour, which they did with Chuck Berry. Bob Dylan was accused of plagiarism, because the cover became such a hit. He stopped singing it, but liked the version a lot. And most people did: it became a number one hit in the UK, the US, Canada, Sweden and Finland. Later it was recorded by many other artists, though this version stayed the most popular. Enjoy

The Animals- The House Of The Rising Sun

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Summer Song of the Day #7: Ritchie Valens- La Bamba

Yes, I know. Yesterday a song which was song of the day before, and today again. But this time I want to focus a bit more on the cover by Los Lobos.

In 1987 a movie with the same name, La Bamba, appeared in the cinemas. Los Lobos made a song for the soundtrack, and this was a cover of Ritchie Valens’ song.
However, Ritchie Valens wasn’t the first artist to sing the song. Although he wasn’t the first to sing it, he was the first to put it on a record. Originally, it was a folk song, so only sung by the ‘normal’ people.

Number 7: Ritchie Valens- La Bamba