Frijid Pink Version
| "House of the Rising Sun" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Frijid Pink | |
| from the album Frijid Pink | |
| B-side | "Drivin' Blues" (U.S.) "God Gave Me You" (UK) |
| Released | 1970 |
| Format | 7" single |
| Genre | Blues rock, psychedelic rock, acid rock |
| Length | 4:44 (album) 3:23 (single) |
| Label | Parrot Records (U.S.) Deram Records (UK) |
| Writer(s) | Traditional, arranged by Alan Price |
| Producer | Michael Valvano |
In 1969, Detroit band Frijid Pink recorded a version of "House of the Rising Sun" which became an international hit in 1970. Sometimes described as psychedelic, their rendition is more in line with the proto-punk sound of fellow Detroit acts MC5 and The Stooges. Their version is in 4/4 time (like Van Ronk's and most earlier versions, rather than the 6/8 used by The Animals), and was driven by Gary Ray Thompson's distorted guitar with fuzz and wah wah effects, set against the frenetic drumming of Richard Stevers.
According to Stevers, the Frijid Pink recording of "House of the Rising Sun" was done impromptu when there happened to be time leftover at a recording session booked for the group at the Tera Shirma Recording Studios. Stevers later played snippets from that session's tracks for Paul Cannon, the music director of Detroit's premier rock radio station WKNR - Stevers knew Cannon as his (Stevers') girlfriend's father - ; Stevers recalls: "we went through the whole thing and didn't say much. Then 'House ' started up and I immediately turned it off because it wasn't anything I really wanted him to hear." However Cannon was intrigued and had Stevers play the complete track for him, then advising Stevers: "Tell Parrot to drop 'God Gave Me You' and go with this one".
Frijid Pink's "House of the Rising Sun" debuted at #29 on the WKNR hit parade dated January 6, 1970 and broke nationally after some seven weeks - during which the track was re-serviced to radio three times - with a #73 debut on the Hot 100 in Billboard dated February 27, 1970 with a subsequent three-week ascent to the Top 30 en route to a Hot 100 peak of #7 on April 4, 1970. The certification of the Frijid Pink single "House of the Rising Sun" as a gold record for domestic sales of one million units was reported in the issue of Billboard dated May 30, 1970.
The Frijid Pink single of "House of the Rising Sun" would afford the song its most widespread international success with Top Ten status reached in Austria (#3), Belgium (Flemish Region) (#6), Canada (#3), Denmark (#3), Germany (2 weeks @#1), Greece, Ireland (#7), Israel (#4), the Netherlands (#3), Norway (7 weeks @#1), Poland (#2), Sweden (#6), Switzerland (#2) and the UK (#4); the single also charted in Australia (#14), France (#36) and Italy (#54).
Read more about this topic: The House Of The Rising Sun
Famous quotes containing the words pink and/or version:
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