The Animals were part of the budding, homegrown U.K. blues scene of the early Sixties and one of the most noteworthy bands of the British Invasion. Formed in Newcastle-on-Tyne, a port city and coal-mining hub in northeast England, the Animals reflected their upbringing with brawling, blues-based rock and roll.

The group derived its inspiration - and much of its early repertoire - from American blues and R&B sources, adapting them to their native British working-class sensibility. Eric Burdon was among the best white R&B singers of the Sixties. His gruff, soulful vocals brought out the anguish in such anthems as “It’s My Life” and “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.”

The band’s sound was also heavily defined by Alan Price’s organ playing, which provided dramatic accents and a blues-jazz atmosphere. The other founding members - guitarist Hilton Valentine, bassist Chas Chandler and drummer John Steel – balanced Burdon’s earthiness and Price’s melodic finesse.

Originally known as the Alan Price Combo, the group changed its name to the Animals when Burdon joined in 1962. Early in their career they served as the U.K. backing band for visiting legendary bluesmen, including John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson. However their career really took off with their move to London in January 1964 and with the release of “House of the Rising Sun” later that year.

The Animals became the first British group after the Beatles to chart a Number One single in America. Their brooding arrangement of “House of the Rising Sun” - a traditional folk song recorded by Josh White and Bob Dylan - became an early milestone in the British Invasion. The single was unconventional in both its lyrics (it was about a house of prostitution in New Orleans) and length (it ran for more than four minutes at a time when anything longer three minutes was considered too long for radio). Nonetheless, “House of the Rising Sun” topped the American and British charts. In fact, it stayed at #1 in the U.S. for three weeks – longer than any single since the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” held down the top spot a half-year earlier.

The Animals followed “House of the Rising Sun” with seven more Top Forty hits, at least four of which – “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (#15), “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” (#13), “It’s My Life” (#23) and “Don’t Bring Me Down” (#12) – are bonafide classics of the British Invasion era. The keys to these and other Animals tracks is their passionate intensity and strong sense of identification with working-class travails, which would become hallmarks of such later rock and rollers as Bruce Springsteen and David Johansen – both of whom were professed Animals fans. Basically, the group was steeped in the blues and R&B sounds that filtered over from America.

Many of the Animals earliest recordings were solid remakes of favorites by such revered artists as John Lee Hooker(“Boom Boom”), Sam Cooke (“Bring It On Home to Me”), Chuck Berry(“Around and Around”), Ray Charles (“Hallelujah, I Love Her So”) and Bo Diddley (“Roadrunner”). At the same time, the Animals had great success interpreting the works of American pop songwriters such as Gerry Goffin and Carole King (“Don’t Bring Me Down”) and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (“We Gotta Get Out of This Place”).

Although The Animals have been through several incarnations they have remained embedded in the fertile soil of Blues, R&B and Soul from which they first grew and continue to thrill audiences everywhere.