From the Vault...

02/05/2006
#980

info
The Animals
"The Story Of The Animals"


© BR Music Records

Rating:

track listing
Disc One:
  • The House Of
    The Rising Sun
  • Gonna Send You
    Back To Walker
  • I'm Crying
  • Boom Boom
  • Don't Let Me
    Be Misunderstood
  • Bring It On
    Home To Me
  • We Gotta Get Out
    Of This Place
  • It's My Life
  • Baby Let Me
    Take You Home
  • Talkin' Bout You
  • Take It Easy
  • Club A Go Go
  • Roadrunner
  • Mess Around
  • Dimples
  • I'm In Love Again
  • I Ain't Got You
  • Bright Lights Big City
  • Blue Feeling
  • The Night
    Disc Two:
  • Inside Looking Out
  • You're On My Mind
  • Don't Bring Me Down
  • Cheating
  • See See Rider
  • Help Me Girl
  • She'll Return It
  • That Ain't
    Where It's At
  • When I Was Young
  • A Girl Named Sandoz
  • San Franciscan Nights
  • Good Times
  • Monterey
  • The Other Side
    Of This Life
  • Sky Pilot
  • Anything
  • It's All Meat
  • River Deep
    Mountain High
  • White Houses
  • Ring Of Fire
  • I'm An Animal

  • WSVNRadio Archives
    A B C D E F G H I J K L M
    N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

    The Animals related sites:
    The Animals Website
    Wikipedia
    Previous Review: #979
    Janis Joplin--Kozmic Blues
    Next Review: #981
    Joe Satriani--Flying In A Blue Dream
    The Animals
    "The Story Of The Animals"



    The Story Of The Animals is a 2-disc Import set, (also known as The Singles Plus) consisting of singles of Eric Burdon & The Animals incredible career. As a huge Animals fan growing up in my earliest years, I had many of their singles, thanks to my older brothers. Throughout collecting these singles, there were a few vinyl albums I had received, where most of these singles appeared, as well as other songs. The two "greatest hits" compilations that come to mind are MGM's The Best Of Eric Burdon And The Animals Vol. II and Polydor's The Greatest Hits Of Eric Burdon And The Animals. Of course, there were other compilations, from Abkco's The Best Of The Animals, and Polydor's The Best Of Eric Burdon And The Animals, 1966-1968. The Story Of The Animals combines most of the songs from all of these compilations, and is probably the best assortment of The Animals' songs in one package. Another compilation is the Import from EMI Int'l, The Complete Animals, which focuses on the early years, and has a few of their most popular hits, but mostly has non-hit recordings.


    The most popular songs are all here, (looking at the Abkco set): "The House Of The Rising Sun," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place," "It's My Life." From the 1966-1968 set, the first 7 songs were best remembered for me, from the Vol. II vinyl, and having most of the singles: "Don't Bring Me Down," "See See Rider," "Inside Looking Out," "Help Me Girl." (singles) Remembering "When I Was Young," "Hey Gyp," "A Girl Named Sandoz" and the Frank Zappa produced "The Other Side Of This Life" were all best remembered specifically from Vol. II vinyl. The remaining songs from the 1966-1968 were best remembered for me from the Polydor Greatest Hits set: "San Franciscan Nights," "Anything," "Monterey," "Sky Pilot," to name a few.


    What makes it more interesting from The Story Of The Animals set, are the unfamilar songs from the vinyl tracks I used to have. Most of the songs from this category from Disc 1 reminds me of another vinyl album I used to have, (and lucily, Abkco Records reissued it on CD), the live album In The Beginning. All of these songs focuses on the early R&B of rock n roll, in which The Animals recorded alot of songs in this particular style, before their most famous songs were more of a British Invasion rock style. "Gonna Send You Back To Walker," "I'm Crying," "Boom Boom," "Baby Let Me Take You Home" (this song I best remembered by the Mustangs' B-side to their hit, "Davie Was A Bad Boy." which I am still trying to find both songs on CD!), "Talkin' Bout You," "Take It Easy," "Club A Go Go," "Roadrunner" (which has a more early Beatles sound). More R&B styled songs are "Mess Around," John Lee Hooker's "Dimples," "I'm In Love Again," "I Ain't Got You," (which The Yardbirds recorded), "Bright Lights Big City," "Blue Feeling." Surprisingly, "The Night" would be from one of two reunion albums of the original members of The Animals, 1983's Ark. There were no tracks from their first reunion album, Before We Were Rudely Interrupted.


    Disc Two contains the core of their popular hits from the later years of the 1960s. There are only less than a handful of unfamilar tracks, "It's All Meat," "Ring Of Fire" and "I'm An Animal."


    The Story Of The Animals is probably the best compilation of their best hits and more in one set, as it consists of songs from 1964 to 1969, and one song from their 1983 reunion album. One Way Records was fortunate to reissue most of the band's later 1960s original albums. Some of their original early albums have also appeared on CD. All of The Animals "best of" compilations and original albums on CD can be found on Amazon.com. Trying to find their two reunion albums on CD maybe a challenge though. Both are available on CD, but maybe hard to find. Where a lot of songs to look for from any particular group or artist maybe hard to find, sometimes they can be found on various compilations, causing duplicate songs on these sets. I have set to see a box set of The Animals' music, yet The Story Of The Animals could be a good runner up to such a box set of the kind.


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    Previous Review: #979
    Janis Joplin--Kozmic Blues
    Next Review: #981
    Joe Satriani--Flying In A Blue Dream