Regardless of its sources of inspiration, The Animals' take on "The House of the Rising Sun" sounded wholly new: writer Dave Marsh described it as "the first folk-rock hit," sounding "as if they'd connected the ancient tune to a live wire,"^[4] while writer Ralph McLean of the BBC agreed that "it was arguably the first folk rock tune," calling it "a revolutionary single" after which "the face of modern music was changed forever."^[5]

The Animals' version transposes the narrative of the song from the point of view of a woman led into a life of degradation, to that of a male, whose father was now a gambler and drunkard, as opposed to the sweetheart in earlier versions.

The Animals had begun featuring their arrangement of "House of the Rising Sun" during a joint concert tour with Chuck Berry, using it as their closing number to differentiate themselves from acts which always closed with straight rockers.^[6] It got a tremendous reaction from the audience, convincing initially reluctant producer Mickie Most that it had hit potential^[6], and between tour stops the group went to a small recording studio on Kingsway in London^[6] to capture it.

Recorded in just one take on 18 May 1964,^[7] it started with a famous electric guitar A minor chord arpeggio by Hilton Valentine, which inspired countless beginning guitarists.^[8][5][9] The performance took off with Eric Burdon's lead vocal, which has been variously described as "howling",^[4] "soulful",^[10] and "deep and gravelly as the north-east English coal town of Newcastle that spawned him."^[9] Finally, Alan Price's pulsating organ part completed the sound. Burdon later said, "We were looking for a song that would grab people's attention,"^[11] and they succeeded: "House of the Rising Sun" was a true trans-Atlantic hit, topping both the UK pop singles chart (in July of 1964) and the U.S. pop singles chart (in September, when it became the first British Invasion number one unconnected with The Beatles^[12]); it was the group's breakthrough hit in both countries and became their signature song.^[13] The song was also a hit in a number of other countries.

The Animals' rendition of the song is recognized as one of the classic outputs of the British Invasion. Writer Lester Bangs labelled it "a brilliant rearrangement" and "a new standard rendition of an old standard composition."^[14] It ranked number 122 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. It is also one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The RIAA placed it as number 240 on their Songs of the Century list. In 1999 it received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. And besides critical acclaim, it has long since become a staple of oldies and classic rock radio formats. A 2005 Channel Five poll ranked it as Britons' fourth favourite number one song of all time.^[7]

As recorded, "House of the Rising Sun" ran four and a half minutes, regarded as far too long for a pop single at the time.^[7] Producer Most, who otherwise minimized his role on this occasion — "Everything was in the right place ... It only took 15 minutes to make so I can't take much credit for the production"^[15] — nonetheless was now a believer and declared it as a single at its full length, saying "We're in a microgroove world now, we will release it."^[15]

In the United States, though, the original single (MGM 13264) was an edited 2:58 version. The MGM Golden Circle reissue (KGC 179) featured the unedited 4:29 version, although the label shows the edited playing time of 2:58. The edited version was included on the group's 1964 U.S. debut album The Animals, while the full version was later included on their best-selling 1966 U.S. greatest hits album The Best of The Animals.

"House of the Rising Sun" was not included on any of the group's British albums. Rather, it was reissued as a single twice in subsequent decades, charting both times: to number 25 in 1972, and to number 11 in 1982.

However, the arranging credit went only to Alan Price, and not to the whole band as many have felt was deserved. According to Burdon, this was simply because there was insufficient room to name all five band members on the record label, and Alan Price's name was first alphabetically. However, this meant that only Price received songwriter's royalties for the hit, a fact that has caused bitterness ever since, especially with Valentine.^[5]