The Best of The Animals (1966 album)

Infobox Album |
Name = The Best of The Animals
Type = compilation
Artist = The Animals


Released = February 1966
Recorded = 1964–1965
Genre = Rock, R&B
Length = 31:36
Label = MGM E/SE-4324
Producer = Mickie Most
Reviews =
Chronology = The Animals U.S.
Last album = "Animal Tracks"
(1965)
This album = "The Best of The Animals"
(1966)
Next album = "Animalization"
(1966)

"The Best of The Animals" was The Animals' first greatest hits collection. It was released in February 1966 in the United States, but never put out in the United Kingdom. The album showcased The Animals' tough-edged pop hits combined with their more devoted blues and R&B workouts.

History

This was the first Animals album to feature new keyboardist Dave Rowberry in its photographs. Liner notes by "Record Beat"'s June Harris extolled the musical and culture virtues of the group and emphasized how close she was to the group. However, overall copyediting was poor and four of the members' names were misspelled.

The album was a great commercial success in the U.S., peaking at number 6 on the pop albums chart, the highest such mark of their career, and remaining on the chart for over two years. [http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=58] By July 1966 it had been certified as a gold record, their only album ever to attain that status. [http://www.riaa.com/gp/database/search_results.asp]

In his 1979 volume "Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island", famed rock critic Greil Marcus selected "The Best of The Animals" for inclusion on same, writing: "This was trash R&B from Newcastle, England, and especially when the focus shifted from American blues to savage pleas for release from working-class slums, more powerful than it had any right to be." In 1997, "Rolling Stone" magazine placed "The Best of The Animals" into the 1960s section of its Rolling Stone 200: The Essential Rock Collection list. [http://www.rocklist.net/rs200.html]

Other compilation albums by the same name (and sometimes even the same cover) but different contents would appear in later decades.

Track listing

ide one

# "It's My Life" (Roger Atkins, Carl D'Errico) – 3:09
# "Gonna Send You Back to Walker" (Johnnie Mae Matthews, John Hammond Jr.) – 2:20
# "Bring It On Home to Me" (Sam Cooke) – 2:40
# "I'm Mad" (John Lee Hooker) – 4:15
# "House of the Rising Sun" (trad. arr Alan Price) – 4:29 (unedited version)

ide two

# "We Gotta Get out of This Place" (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil) – 3:17 (U.S. "mistaken" version)
# "Boom Boom" (John Lee Hooker) – 2:57
# "I'm In Love Again" (Fats Domino) – 2:59
# "Roberta" (Al Smith, John Vincent) – 2:04
# "I'm Crying" (Alan Price, Eric Burdon) – 2:30
# "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus, Gloria Caldwell) – 2:26

Personnel

* Eric Burdon – vocals
* Alan Price – keyboards except as indicated below
* Dave Rowberry – keyboards ("We Gotta Get out of This Place" and "It's My Life")
* Hilton Valentine – guitar
* Chas Chandler – bass
* John Steel – drums