Eric Burdon is a living legend, consummate artist, and one of the finest high-energy, full-throated rock and blues singers of all time. First leaving his mark on the world as the charismatic frontman of sensational 1960s British Invasion rhythm and blues/rock band The Animals, known for their definitive version of the folk-blues standard "The House of the Rising Sun," as well as other hits, including an epic cover of Nina Simone's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," the class-consciousness imbued rocker "We Gotta Get out of This Place," and the resoundingly anti-conformist anthem "It's My Life."
After the original incarnation of The Animals disbanded in the mid 1960s, Burdon relocated to California and moved his music into a psychedelic and hard rock direction with a talented new group of young musicians (including John Weider, Vic Briggs, Danny McCulloch, Barry Jenkins, and Zoot Money). They billed themselves as Eric Burdon and the Animals — a band that, at one point, even had Andy Summers as a member, years before he achieved fame with The Police.
During this phase of Burdon's career, hits such as "When I Was Young," "San Franciscan Nights," "Monterey," and "Sky Pilot" were written and recorded, Burdon also performed at the original Monterey International Pop Festival during the Summer of Love in 1967, one of the first major rock festivals that arguably served as the inspiration for everything since, from Woodstock to Coachella.