‘The House of the Rising Sun’ by the Animals has been one of my favorite songs of all times (OK – this lifetime).

I certainly had the album – still have the vinyl and even a player to play it, and a long time ago when I learned to play the guitar, that was the score sheet I dug up somewhere and practiced, practiced, and practiced.

Then, when the synthesizer came along, I dug out these old scores and figured out how to play the melody and chords with both of them hands. It turned out to be one of the two songs that I ever taught myself to play on keyboards.

And now the video of the Animals with that song falling into my lap from YouTube-land – and believe it or not – that is, after listening to the song maybe hundreds of times, the first time I see the band perform.

(July 5, 2007 and May 22, 2009 and 2026-05-22: I just had to update this video link – again – because the previous one was no longer available – now you can turn on CC – so sing along. The struggle for who owns what rights seems to be raging, judging by the frequent disappearance of the video.)

And to make it even better – here is another famous one from the Animals.