"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 version was recorded by the English rock group The Animals in 1964, which was a number one hit in the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden and Canada.
The only rendition other than The Animals' to become a hit came in early 1970, when Detroit-based Frijid Pink released their take on the song. Sometimes described as done in psychedelic music style, Pink's rendition is actually more aligned with the proto-metal/proto-punk sound of fellow contemporaneous Detroit acts MC5 and The Stooges. The Frijid Pink version of the song is in 4/4 time signature (like Dave Van Ronk's version, and most earlier versions, rather than the 6/8 used by The Animals. The performance was driven by Gary Ray Thompson's distorted guitar[18] with fuzz and wah wah effects, set against frenetic drumming from Richard Stevers. Lead singer Tom Beaudry's (aka:Kelly Green) vocal phrasing almost exactly matched Eric Burdon's.

Regardless of its merits, the recording was indeed again a trans-Atlantic success, reaching number 7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 3 in Canada. It was awarded gold record status in the U.S. in May 1970 for selling a million copies.[19] It also hit number one in a number of European countries, including West Germany and Norway. It would be Frijid Pink's only top ten hit."