Members in the Kansas City Five included Alan Price, drummer John Steel and vocalist Eric Burden. In 1962, Price left to join the Kontours, while Burdon went off to London. The Kontours, whose membership included Bryan “Chas” Chandler, later evolved into the Alan Price R&B Combo, with John Steel playing drums.

Burdon’s return to Newcastle in early 1963 marked his return to the lineup. The last member of the group, guitarist Hilton Valentine, joined in time for the recording of a self-produced EP under the band’s new name, the Animals. The band’s Columbia debut single “Baby Let Me Take You Home,” created in a studio session in 1964, rose to number twenty-one on the British Charts.

The group’s next single, entitled “House of the Rising Sun,” came about through Josh White. The song, with its new guitar riff by Valentine and a soulful organ accompaniment devised by Price, soared to the top of charts in the U.K. and United States early that summer. The band’s success subsequently gave rise to a session that yielded the first long-playing record, The Animals.

Alan Price left the band in May of 1965. More lineup changes followed.

“Don’t Bring Me Down” marked the end of the Animals.