Hot R.S. – The House Of The Rising Sun - The South African Rock Encyclopedia

The South African Rock Encyclopedia > Rock Legends > 1970s > Hot R.S. > Discography > Hot R.S. – The House Of The Rising Sun

Tracks

The House Of The Rising Sun (Trad. arr. D. Hill/K. Kruger) [14.35]
Slow Blow (K. Kruger) [7.19]
Delta Queen (T. Tassenberg) [7.53]

Produced by Kevin Kruger and arranged by Dan Hill, engineered by Hennie Hartmann

Release information

LP: 1977, RPM, RPM 1120
CD: 1991, RPM, CDRPM 1120

Comments

Cover model: Sue Kiel

The album was originally banned, but had sold over 100 000 copies by the end of 2002!

“The House Of The Rising Sun” and “Slow Blow” were re-recorded in 2003 for the album “I Get So Excited“.

Spotify states a release date of 18th July 1977, but this is unconfirmed and it doesn’t quite gel with the story by Robbie Mann below, as Santa Esmeralda’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” was released in September 1977.
Brian Currin

The disco scene was really starting to pump in the mid 70s with clubs like Raffles, La Poupet, Idols, Plumb Crazy, etc, etc.

As a PR for RPM we would go to the clubs to promote whatever dance type product we had. I heard Santa Esmeralda’s “Don’t let me be misunderstood” at Raffles, I think … I thought WOW great dance record! The next day I went to Dan Hill who was the head of production at RPM. He and Kevin Kruger shared an office and I told them about the idea of recording “House of the rising sun” in a disco style. Dan was a bit iffy, but Kevin was super keen. I got a copy of the song for them and a few days later they called me to the studio to hear the beginnings of the track. It just seemed to build and build from there and get longer and longer (14 mins) with layers of keyboards, percussion, great vocals from René Veldsman, Penny Croft, and of course the sexy moaning, etc.

Great musos kept coming and going to and from the studio. Trevor Rabin, Cedric Samson, Mutt Lange, Duncan Mackay, etc.

I sort of took the cover literally and we photographed the photographer’s wife in a derelict house which was around the corner from the Oppenheimer’s house in Parktown. Very average cover (to say the least). Fortunately, someone came up with the idea to put the gorgeous Sue Keil on the new cover. Kevin came up with the name HOTRS. The album was a big club success and was released in many countries.
Robin Mann, ex-RPM, from Marq Vas’s Southern African Music Collectibles

At the time between Dan, Kevin and myself, it was decided not to give the credits to session musicians that played or sung minor parts in the arrangements.
Hennie Hartman, engineer, from Marq Vas’s Southern African Music Collectibles

Interestingly, Santa Esmeralda also recorded a disco version of “House Of The Rising Sun” (with a Spanish flavour), which was released in 1977. This version is similar to the track by Revelacion, produced by Cerrone, also released in 1977.
Brian Currin

Santa Esmeralda – The House Of The Rising Sun

Revelacion – The House Of The Rising Sun

The Swedish release of this album has the tracks in a different order and includes “Doublecross” as a bonus track. It is on the Sound Of Scandinavia label with catalogue number SOSLP 026. Despite Discogs showing no release date, this is probably a 1980 pressing, based on the label catalogue numbering sequence and the fact that “Doublecross” is included.
Brian Currin

Spotify Playlist for Swedish release

“Delta Queen” was written by Terry Tassenberg (an alias of John Norwell) and recorded by South African band Proudfoot in 1972.

Delta Queen by Proudfoot

Proudfoot – Delta Queen

Review

1001 South African Songs You Must Hear Before You Go Deaf

By John Samson, 29 December 2017

‘The House Of The Rising Sun’ had been around for a while (possibly having its early origins in the 17th century), but was flung into popular culture by The Animals who took this traditional folk tune and introduced a rock element into it, so the song has become used to trying out different genres. And in South Africa it decided to see what it sounded like as a pounding disco anthem.

Cue Kevin Kruger and Dan Hill who assembled a band calling themselves Hot R.S. (I wonder where they got the name from). They drafted in a certain Rabbitt called Trevor Rabin, a chap called Cedric Samson, another called Duncan MacKay and for a sexy feminine touch a pre-Via Afrikan Rene Veldsman was called upon. They then set out turning this old folk tune into a mammoth dance track.

With drums pounding and atmospheric keyboards swirling around in your head, you can bust more than a groove on the dancefloor to this one. But don’t start out with the John Travolta moves as you will need to preserve your energy because the song, which takes up the whole side of the LP, clocks in at nearly 15 minutes, so build up to that moment when you swing your white suit jacket round your head.

And you may just have to have a cold shower standing by for the end of the song because as you head into the last 4 minutes or so, Rene Veldsman, who has been slinking sexily around the song, moves into orgasmic overdrive in a way that makes Meg Ryan’s ‘When Harry Met Sally’ effort seem positively faked. This must have had the mother grundies turning in their graves before they even died.

During the song, Rene also pleads ‘Rise again baby’ and Kruger, Rabin, and Veldsman did so under the name Disco Rock Machine which also produced some brilliant rocking disco track as the 70s drew to a close and the 80s dawned on us.

Hot R.S.’s version of ‘The House Of The Rising’ is a classic epic that is like a gym work out. I am sure that those troubadours of the 17th century would have marvelled at how far and how many roads their song had travelled.