Who recorded it first
The House of the Rising Sun
Not an Animals original — a 1933 Vocalion 78 by Clarence “Tom” Ashley and Gwen Foster
Ask most people who wrote or first recorded “The House of the Rising Sun” and the answer is The Animals, whose 1964 single reached No. 1 in both Britain and America. But the oldest known recording of the song is “Rising Sun Blues,” cut on 6 September 1933 by Clarence “Tom” Ashley and Gwen Foster ↗ and issued on Vocalion 02576. Nobody wrote it: it is a traditional song of uncertain authorship, catalogued as Roud 6393, and Ashley said he learned it from his grandfather Enoch Ashley. The 78 sold into the Depression-era hillbilly market and vanished; it was the folk revival, not the record shop, that carried the song forward.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Recorded 6 September 1933 and issued by Vocalion as a 10-inch 78 rpm shellac single, catalogue 02576, under the title “Rising Sun Blues,” backed with “East Virginia Blues.”
Charted No chart placing is recorded. It was a Depression-era hillbilly release that sold quietly and then disappeared for decades.
Hear Ashley and Foster’s 1933 “Rising Sun Blues,” remastered from the 78 www.youtube.com · An auto-generated “Provided to YouTube by Routenote” upload on the Clarence “Tom” Ashley Topic channel (the artist name is misspelled “Ashey” in the distributor metadata). Its runtime of 2:39 matches the reissued 1933 side catalogued at 2:42 on MusicBrainz, and rules out Ashley’s later 2:58 Folkways re-recording with Doc Watson.How the song travelled
The oldest known recording ↗ is Ashley and Foster’s “Rising Sun Blues,” 6 September 1933 on Vocalion; Ashley said he learned it from his grandfather Enoch Ashley.
Alan Lomax later recorded Georgia Turner, a sixteen-year-old miner’s daughter in Middlesboro, Kentucky, singing it as “The Rising Sun Blues” — the version that fed the folk revival.
Roy Acuff cut it in 1938, the Almanac Singers in 1941, Josh White and Libby Holman in 1942, and Lead Belly in the 1940s.
Dave Van Ronk’s half-step descending bass line reached Bob Dylan’s 1962 debut album ↗, and from there the arrangement the Animals recorded in 1964.
Wikipedia: the recorded history of “The House of the Rising Sun”Know more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
The record, corrected
The Animals’ 1964 single is so complete a performance that it reads as the song’s point of origin. It is not, and the gap is not small.
The Animals, 1964
Their single, recorded 18 May 1964 and released by Columbia on 19 June, hit No. 1 in Britain and No. 1 in America for three weeks. Most listeners meet the song here and assume it began here.
Clarence “Tom” Ashley and Gwen Foster, 1933
They recorded it as “Rising Sun Blues” on 6 September 1933 for Vocalion, issued as catalogue 02576 with “East Virginia Blues” on the reverse. Wikipedia describes it as the oldest known recording of the song.
Traditional; author unknown
No individual wrote it. It is a traditional song of uncertain authorship, indexed as Roud 6393, and Ashley said he had it from his grandfather — which puts it well before any recording.
Dave Van Ronk, by way of Bob Dylan
Van Ronk gave the song its half-step descending bass line in the 1950s. Dylan recorded that arrangement on his 1962 debut, and it is that version of the song, not the 1933 78, that the Animals were working from.
The Animals made the definitive recording of a song that was already more than thirty years old on record and far older than that in the singing.
Context
Why the 1964 record swallowed the song
The Animals did not learn this song from a 78. They learned it from the folk revival, which had been passing it hand to hand for decades. Alan Lomax recorded a sixteen-year-old Kentucky miner’s daughter, Georgia Turner, singing it in Middlesboro and called it “The Rising Sun Blues.” Roy Acuff cut a version in 1938, the Almanac Singers in 1941, Josh White and Libby Holman in 1942, Lead Belly in the 1940s, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez by the end of the 1950s.
The decisive link is Dave Van Ronk, who picked the song up in the 1950s from a Hally Wood recording and rebuilt it around a bass line descending in half steps. Bob Dylan recorded Van Ronk’s arrangement for his 1962 debut album — to Van Ronk’s lasting irritation — and it was that shape of the song, not Ashley and Foster’s, that reached a Newcastle beat group two years later. What the Animals originated was an arrangement. What they inherited was a ballad older than the recording industry.
The chain of custody, step by step
- 6 September 1933 — Clarence “Tom” Ashley and Gwen Foster record “Rising Sun Blues”; Vocalion issues it as 02576, backed with “East Virginia Blues.”
- 1937 — Alan Lomax records Georgia Turner, a miner’s daughter in Middlesboro, Kentucky, and titles her version “The Rising Sun Blues.”
- 1938-1948 — Roy Acuff (1938), the Almanac Singers (1941), Josh White and Libby Holman (1942) and Lead Belly all record versions.
- 1950s — Dave Van Ronk learns the song from a Hally Wood recording and gives it a bass line descending in half steps.
- 1962 — Bob Dylan records Van Ronk’s arrangement for his debut album.
- 18 May 1964 — The Animals record their version in a single take, produced by Mickie Most.
- 19 June 1964 — Columbia releases the single in the UK; MGM 13264 follows in the US. It tops both charts.
The song has no author to steal from — only a long line of people who passed it on.