Eric Burdon may have been the best voice of all the British Invasion bands. Blues-inflected, it was and still is a powerful and dramatic force. His band, The Animals, was the greatest influence on a young musician from NJ. Bruce Springsteen says they were the first group he ever heard with “full-blown class consciousness” with a name that was “unforgiving and final and irrevocable” and a singer who looked like “a gorilla in a suit” but had a voice “like Howlin’ Wolf coming out of some 17-year-old kid.” Today we wish happy birthday to #57 in Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Eric Victor Burdon was born May 11, 1941, in Newcastle, a coal mining and industrial port city in northeast England. He was an art student with aspirations to work in the movie business. Those plans were derailed in 1962, when he joined the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo as its lead singer. The group quickly changed its name to The Animals, named for a member of the street gang that ran with them.

In 1964, The Animals went to London and recorded two singles. “House of the Rising Sun” became a #1 hit in the US and the UK. The band released 3 albums from ’64-’66 with singles including “It’s My Life” “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” “We Gotta Get Outta This Place” “I’m Cryin” and “See See Rider”. The original group broke up over tensions between Price and Burdon, and financial mismanagement. Eric moved to California and formed Eric Burdon and the Animals, a psychedelic rock group. From ’66-’69, they released 5 albums in the US with the singles “Monterey” “When I Was Young” “San Franciscan Nights” and “Sky Pilot”. The last lineup included future guitarist for The Police, Andy Summers.

Eric Burdon and War

Eric Burdon and War came next, lasting until 1971. “Spill the Wine” was a hit for the funk group during this time. Eric then began his solo career, backed by the Eric Burdon Band. The original Animals reunited briefly in 1975 and 1983. In the early 90s, Eric and keyboard wizard Brian Auger collaborated and toured together. In the late 90s, Eric was backed by the New Animals. Eric has continued to record and tour. He has also appeared in films. In 2012, he cut a record with Cincinnati, OH, garage band The Greenhornes, and then played with them at SXSW. His last album, Til Your River Runs Dry, was released in 2013, and is a treat. The man can still sing, folks. Eric plans to commemorate his 75th birthday with a concert in Newcastle this fall. 

With Brian Auger

Eric is an unabashed fan of the US. He became a naturalized citizen in the 80s and loves living in the mountains above Palm Springs, CA, where he moved to relieve his asthma. In an interview with The Telegraph in 2014, Eric recalled an encounter with a Hollywood star in the mid-80s. “One night, I did the Larry King radio show and as we left at one o’clock in the morning, there was the very recognizable face of Angie Dickinson. She said ‘Have you ever seen the statues and monuments in Washington, DC since you’ve become a citizen? I’ve got a limo downstairs and this is the best time of the day to do it.’”

“So we cruise through the monuments in this Cadillac with the wind coming in, and she’s telling me stories about her days with Jack [Nicholson], and then we came to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a big black stone wall. It was pretty moving. We’re walking along, and I remember Angie’s fingers going down and feeling the indentations in the marble, and then I see these guys sitting there, smoking, and there’s big clouds of pot coming from them, and they’ve got a disc player, and I heard my voice. They are playing one of my songs, and they’re like, 'Hey, what’s happening, man?’ And I’ve got Angie on one arm, stoned Vietnam vets, my music in the air, this is the ultimate American dreamscape. It really hit me heavy.”

“Burdon shakes his head. ‘Living here is like a constant dream,’ he says, ‘and you are constantly dreaming about what you can do next.’”

Happy Birthday to Eric Burdon!

Live recording – no lip synching, or singing over back track