"The House of the Rising Sun" is a great song. It was a big hit by the Animals in 1964. I remember first hearing Bob Dylan's version, which was recorded in 1961. I thought, "ah, that's where the Animals got it!" Of course, in the Dylan film "No Direction Home," Dave Van Ronk said that it was his arrangement and that Dylan stole it from him. I had heard years ago that it was a Leadbelly song. I subsequently learned that a lot of Leadbelly songs were in fact old folk and/or blues songs that Leadbelly sort of claimed.
Well, American Blues Scene has a piece on the origins of "The House of the Rising Sun." It was an old folk tune, with versions recorded as early as 1932 by Clarence Ashley. It may have been a tune from over the ocean. In any account, "The House of the Rising Sun" may not be a New Orleans brothel (though, of course, there is some dispute about that).
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