The House of the Rising Sun

Chords you’ll need to know

Am C D E F

Jam-Along Backing Track

Lyrics

There is a house in New Orleans They call the Rising Sun And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy Dear God, I know I was one My mother was a tailor She sewed my new blue jeans And my father was a gamblin' man Way down in New Orleans And the only thing a gambler needs Is a suitcase and a trunk And the only time he's satisfied Is when he's a drunk Oh, mother, tell your children Not to do what I have done To spend your lives in sin and misery In the house of the rising sun I got one foot on the platform And another on the train And I'm going back to New Orleans To wear that ball and chain There is a house in New Orleans They call the Rising Sun And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy Dear God, I know I was one

About This Song

The House of the Rising Sun is a traditional song, and nobody knows who wrote it. The oldest known recording is "Rising Sun Blues" by Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster, made in 1933. Ashley said he learned it from his grandfather, Enoch Ashley. Roy Acuff learned it from Ashley and recorded it in 1938. In 1937 Alan Lomax recorded 16-year-old Georgia Turner singing it in Middlesboro, Kentucky, and most of the words sung today come from her version. The Animals had a number one hit with it in 1964, and that's the version most people know.

Doc Watson played with Ashley in the early 1960s and sang it with him on the Folkways recordings of that time.

Year	Artist	Notes
1933	Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster
1937	Georgia Turner
1938	Roy Acuff
1964	The Animals
1965	Doc Watson	As "Rising Sun Blues," with his son Merle
1999	Doc Watson	As "House of the Rising Sun," with his grandson Richard

The chart puts a major 4 and a major 5 against the 1 minor. Those chords fall outside the minor key, and they're the same changes the Animals' hit made famous.