Some fun and not so fun facts about House of the Rising Sun:

• The melody comes from an old English ballad, the lyrics are written by Georgia Turner and Bert Martin, two people from Kentucky.
• 'House of the Rising Sun' is slang for brothel. This brothel is situated in New Orleans and was named after a certain Marianne Le Soleil Levant (Marian Rising Sun in French). Other sources say it is slang for a women's prison in New Orleans.
• Bob Dylan nicked an arrangement of this tune for his first album (1962) from a guy called Dave van Ronk. Eric Burdon arranged Bob Dylan's version for his band, The Animals, and made it a hit. Bob was not too happy about that (how's that for karma?).
• The Animals recorded House of the Rising Sun in one take.
• It was the first time a rock rhythm was applied to a folk song.
• The Animals' version of The House of the Rising Sun was the first number 1 hit over 4 minutes long.
• They played it for the first time while touring with Chuck Berry. The public liked it so much that they recorded it between stops during the tour.
• The arrangement credits are owned by Alan Price, the organ player of the band, all royalties go to him. Unnecessary to say that the other members of the band were not very happy with this.
• The Animals was the first British band to have a n°1 hit in the States besides The Beatles since 1962. When they pushed The Beatles from their n°1 spot, The Animals got a telegram from them: 'Congratulations from the Beatles (a group)'.
• The song has been played many times by people like Nina Simone, Tangerine Dream, U2, Green Day, John Williams, Muse, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Moody Blues, Joan Baez, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and even Pink Floyd.