| The Best of the Animals | |
| Type: | greatest |
| Artist: | the Animals |
| Cover: | The Best Of The Animals.jpg |
| Recorded: | 22 January 196410 September 1965 |
| Genre: | Rock, blues rock, British R&B |
| Length: | 33:25 |
| Label: | MGM |
| Producer: | Mickie Most |
| Chronology: | The Animals U.S. |
| Prev Title: | Animal Tracks |
| Prev Year: | 1965 |
| Next Title: | Animalization |
| Next Year: | 1966 |
The Best of The Animals is the first greatest hits collection by the British rock group the Animals. MGM Records released the album in February 1966 in the United States. It showcases the Animals' tough-edged pop hits combined with their more devoted blues and R&B workouts. The album has been reissued with some different tracks and a similar collection, The Most of Animals, was released in the United Kingdom in 1966.
This was the first Animals album to feature new keyboardist Dave Rowberry in its photographs. Liner notes by Record Beats June Harris extolled the musical and cultural virtues of the group and emphasized how close she was to the group. However, overall copyediting was poor and three of the members' names were misspelled.
The album was a great commercial success in the U.S., peaking at number six on the Billboard 200, the highest such mark of their career, and remaining on the chart for over two years.[1] By July 1966 it had been certified as a gold record, their only album ever to attain that status.[2]
In his 1979 volume Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island, famed rock critic Greil Marcus selected The Best of the Animals for inclusion on same, writing: "This was trash R&B from Newcastle, England, and especially when the focus shifted from American blues to savage pleas for release from working-class slums, more powerful than it had any right to be."[3] In 1997, Rolling Stone magazine placed The Best of the Animals into the 1960s section of its Rolling Stone 200: The Essential Rock Collection list.[4]
Other compilation albums by the same name (and sometimes even the same cover), but different contents have appeared over the years.
Presumably their first compilation on CD, it featured the same album cover and the same hit singles as their original 1966 US collection, but had more and different other tracks. It was later re-issued in 2000 & 2014 and is the version featured on streaming.
The album contains many of their hits from the mid-1960s, including "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". The first 12 tracks are the same as the 1971 UK compilation The Most of Animals.[5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
. Greil Marcus . Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island . . New York . 1979 . 0-394-73827-6 . paperback . 255.