10 Best Cover Songs In Classic Rock

If you ask any rock musician as to where the origins of this music comes from, there's a pretty good chance they'll point you towards the blues. With its grimy nature and riff-oriented structure, the blues is the prototype for what the first rock bands would come to cultivate. However, folk music was also making a big impact on the other side of the spectrum.

Coming from the British Invasion scene, the Animals were a promising live act but didn't have the definitive song that would put them over the top. When combing through his old records, singer Eric Burdon found a version of the old traditional tune House of the Rising Sun. Though the song had been passed on in rock circles from artists like Bob Dylan, Burdon knew his version of the tune could be something special.

Rather than just strum the chords, guitarist Hilton Valentine carefully picks out the notes to give a consistent motion to the melody. This rolling structure beautifully plays off the words, as we hear of the escapades at this house that may or may not have more nefarious connotations. After this song, The Animals set themselves apart as something much more interesting than their Chuck-Berry-plagiarizing counterparts.