{"id":31423,"date":"2026-09-04T05:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31423"},"modified":"2026-04-28T15:55:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:55:35","slug":"take-five-must-hear-tracks-featuring-eric-burdon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/04\/take-five-must-hear-tracks-featuring-eric-burdon\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Must-hear Tracks featuring Eric Burdon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Acclaimed by Rolling Stone as No. 57 in their \u201c100 Greatest Singers of All Time, Eric Burdon has has a fascinating career. First as lead singer with the Animals during the British Invasion, later with War and as a solo artist, Burdon has scored both with critics and the record-buying (and concert-going) public. Through his career, Burdon has demonstrated his mastery of many musical styles, from hard r&amp;b to psychedelia, from funk and soul to blues and beyond. In celebration of his 84th birthday on May 11, here are five must-hear tunes featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Eric Burdon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Be Misunderstood\u201d from The Animals\u2019 <em>Animal Tracks<\/em> (1965)<\/strong><br \/>\nIn their original run, the hard-edged band from Newcastle, England landed quite a few singles on the charts. Beginning with 1964\u2019s \u201cThe House of the Rising Sun,\u201d the Animals placed more than a dozen songs on the UK Top 40; in America, the group performed slightly better. The band\u2019s sixth single, \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Be Misunderstood\u201d was recorded only a month after Nina Simone released her original version, and earned the group a No. 15 hit in the U.S. and a No. 3 hit in England.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_2sz_YwwwQ4?si=Cq30U9eBWJSZ2lqn\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSky Pilot\u201d from Eric Burdon &amp; the Animals\u2019<em> The Twain Shall Meet<\/em> (1968)<\/strong><br \/>\nAs 1966 gave way to \u201867, the Animals had disintegrated; their distinctive keyboardist Alan Price had left as early as \u201865, and others would follow. Burdon formed a new group, adding \u201cEric Burdon &amp;\u201d to the front of the band name. The new group adopted a more psychedelic musical orientations. The band\u2019s first single was the hit \u201cSan Franciscan Nights\u201d (in which Burdon inexplicably characterizes said nights as \u201cwarm\u201d). The anti-Vietnam war song \u201cSky Pilot\u201d earned the band another hit: No. 14 in the U.S. A lengthy tune with progressive elements, \u201cSky Pilot\u201d was split into two haves, forming both the A- and B-side of the 1968 single record.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m0JMCaKwOUY?si=O6GZ2gLEaVxRIU-_\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSpill the Wine\u201d from Eric Burdon and War\u2019s <em>Eric Burdon Declares \u201cWar\u201d<\/em> (1970)<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter the end of Eric Burdon &amp; the Animals, Burdon hooked up with Long Beach, California American funk\/soul band Nightshift, renamed War. After playing a number of gigs, the group went into the studio to cut their debut album. With a spoken interlude, the remarkable \u201cSpill the Wine\u201d made the Top 40 in eight countries, including claiming the top spot on the U.S. <em>Cash Box<\/em> chart.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4-Xs7NK-7B8?si=oMVsHbyBdaOkLlNE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cHome Dream\u201d from Eric Burdon and Jimmy Witherspoon\u2019s <em>Guilty!<\/em> (1971)<\/strong><br \/>\nBurdon\u2019s passion for American blues began early; it\u2019s a defining characteristic of his work with the Animals and beyond. So his 1971 collaboration with jump blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon may not have come as a surprise to his most ardent fans. The two singers teamed up together on 1971\u2019s <em>Guilty!<\/em>, backed by members of War. By that point, Witherspoon had already released some 30 albums, but <em>Guilty!<\/em> helped bring him to the attention of more rock-oriented listeners. The album featured a mix of covers and originals; a highlight was the Burdon composition \u201cHome Dream.\u201d Guilty! was re-titled <em>Black &amp; White Blues<\/em> for subsequent reissues; those releases also replaced the original\u2019s unappealing cover art.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gAw10uUeXtg?si=B-uqByxw7JOCUlGC\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Night\u201d from The Animals\u2019 <em>Ark<\/em> (1983)<\/strong><br \/>\nBurdon\u2019s work credited to Eric Burdon &amp; the animals ended in late 1968, after which he recorded and performed variously under his own name, with War and with other projects. But various aggregations of the original Animals reconvened a number of times. Two of those reunions resulted in new studio album releases. In 1977, five original members (including Burdon) reunited for <em>Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted<\/em>; critics were divided, and the record sold poorly. The group got together again for the unmistakably MTV-era album <em>Ark<\/em>. The first single released from that record, \u201cThe Night\u201d nearly made it into the U.S. Top 40 (No. 48 on <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Hot 100) and placed No. 34 on <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Top Rock Tracks chart.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IIrHLvTJEjg?si=3626UFWWWXcniBPn\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acclaimed by Rolling Stone as No. 57 in their \u201c100 Greatest Singers of All Time, Eric Burdon has has a fascinating career. First as lead singer with the Animals during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3458,3457,5782,3193],"class_list":["post-31423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-animals","tag-eric-burdon","tag-jimmy-witherspoon","tag-war","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31425,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31423\/revisions\/31425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}