Artist · chart history · #578 in indie & aaa artist polls
The Animals
Band Newcastle upon Tyne United Kingdom Active 1963–1983 ’60s “British invasion” group
The Animals formed in 1963 in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom and was active until 1983. The Animals has 97 chart appearances on 74 radio countdowns from 26 stations on RockLists, spanning 1982–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “The House Of The Rising Sun”, which appears on 67 lists with a best position of #28. The station that charted The Animals most often is WMGK (Philadelphia, PA), with 12 appearances.
Out of Newcastle upon Tyne came the Animals, the grimiest, bluesiest outfit the British Invasion ever shipped across the Atlantic: Eric Burdon bellowing like a dockside preacher, Hilton Valentine on guitar, Chas Chandler on bass, Alan Price on keyboards and John Steel on drums. They cut tough, rock-hard pop singles for the radio and saved the rhythm and blues for the albums, and the combination was murder.
"The House of the Rising Sun" was the big one, a number one on both sides of the ocean that still sounds like it was cut in a cellar at midnight. The hits kept coming after it, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", "It's My Life", "Don't Bring Me Down", but Price walked in 1965, Steel followed early the next year, lousy business management did the rest, and by the end of 1966 the original band was through.
Burdon wasn't. He rebuilt the group with a new cast as Eric Burdon and the Animals, moved to California and went full psychedelic with "San Franciscan Nights" and "Sky Pilot" before that version packed it in at the end of the decade. The original five kept finding their way back, for a benefit show in Newcastle in 1968 and for reunion albums in the '70s and again in 1983, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 1994. On the countdowns, "The House of the Rising Sun" is still the song nobody can shake.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Animals on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The House Of The Rising Sun#375 of all time | 67 | #28 | – | – | |
| 2 | We Gotta Get Out Of This Place | 13 | #185 | – | – | |
| 3 | Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood | 7 | #271 | – | – | |
| 4 | It's My Life | 4 | #383 | – | – | |
| 5 | Sky Pilot | 1 | #616 | – | – | |
| 6 | Monterey | 1 | #903 | – | – | |
| 7 | House of Rising Sun | 1 | #993 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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