How To Play House Of The Rising Sun
By The Animals

On this page Im going to explain how to play House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals on the acoustic.

The House Of The Rising Sun was not written by The Animals, but their version of the song in 1964 is the most recognized because in that year it became a #1 hit for them in many countries, including the US, UK and Canada.

There is discrepancy about the origin of the song but keyboardist for The Animals Alan Price, said he believes it was an English folk song written back in the 1600's about a brothel in England, and the song made its way to the US via emigrants where the words were changed to make reference to New Orleans.

The Animals were touring with Chuck Berry at the time when they first sdtarted playing their version of the song as a closer to their part of the show. Audience reaction was so positive they convinced producer Mickie Most allow them to record it. They did so in one take on the 18th of May 1964.



This song was the first hit song during The Beatles invasion that was not a Beatles song. It became The Animals signature song.

Several other covers were done of the song by Frijid Pink in 1970, Jody Miller in 1973 and Dolly Parton in 1981. But The Animals will always be the group closest associated to this song.



I play this one in standard pitch, but in spite of that, it's still a high song to sing for me, so I have to sing this one low most of the way thru. The chords are Am, C, D, F, E7 and Dm at the end.

You can play the arpeggio style all the way thru if you'd like but as you'll notice, after the break pattern, which is fully explained in the full instructional tutorial, I change gears and move away from strictly arpeggio style of rhythm.

                 

Free Tab Available


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Full Tutorial - .wmv format - 14 min 31 sec

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Image from Wikipedia

Once we get into the 4th verse I like to switch to a shuffle strum for this one because the song kinda builds an intensity to is as it heads towrds the end of the song.

You can use a dn-dn-up-dn-dn-up-dn or dn-dn-up-dn-dn-dn-dn or even dn-dn-up-dn-dn-dn-up and repeat whichever you choose. Dont be afraid to throw in a shuffle here and there as well.

Near the end of the song we switch to a Dm with an open bottom string and play a little riff on the B string to duplicate a bit of the organ fade at the end of the song and finally ending on C with a hammer-on at the D string.

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