YEAR
1994
INDUCTED BY
Dave Pirner
CATEGORY
Performers
The Animals were at the front of the British Invasion, yowling to the top of the charts with hits like “House of the Rising Sun.”
Heavily influenced by American R&B, the Animals were master interpreters of existing songs, updating them with a working-class toughness and giving them new life.
John Steel
Hilton Valentine
Eric Burdon
Chas Chandler
Alan Price
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Seymour Stein
From the somber opening chords of the Animals’ first big hit “House of the Rising Sun,” the world could tell that this band was up to something different than their British Invasion peers.
When the record hit #1 in England and America in the summer and fall of 1964, the Beatles and their Mersey-beat fellow travelers dominated the charts with songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Glad All Over.”
