Haley Reinhart -The House of the Rising Sun

Haley Reinhart performance "The House of the Rising Sun" (The Animals). Current + 60s songs week (2 songs each contestant). All the judges gave a standing ovation, and called the performance "the best of the night". http://www.americanidol.com/

"The House of the Rising Sun" is a folk song from the United States. Also called "House of the Rising Sun" or occasionally "Rising Sun Blues", it tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans. The most successful commercial version was recorded by the English rock group The Animals in 1964, which was a number one hit in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and Canada.

Like many classic folk ballads, the authorship of "The House of the Rising Sun" is unknown. Some musicologists believe it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads such as the "Unfortunate Rake" of the 18th century which were taken to America by early settlers. Many of these had the theme of "if only" and after a period of evolution, they emerge as American songs like "Streets of Laredo".

Alan Price of The Animals has claimed that the song was originally a sixteenth-century English folk song about a Soho brothel, and that English emigrants took the song to America where it was adapted to its later New Orleans setting.

The oldest known existing recording is by Appalachian artists Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster and was made in 1933. Ashley said he had learned it from his grandfather, Enoch Ashley. Alger "Texas" Alexander's "The Risin' Sun," recorded in 1928, is sometimes mentioned as the first recording, but is a completely different song.

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