London- Hilton Valentine, the founding guitarist of the English rock and roll band The Animals, who is credited with creating one of the most famous opening riffs of the 1960s, has died. He was 77 years old.
The band’s label, ABKCO Music, confirmed that Valentine died on Friday, according to his wife, Germaine Valentine. The cause of death has not been reported.
“Valentine was a pioneering guitarist who influenced the sound of rock and roll in the following decades,” the label said in a statement.
Valentine took up guitar at the age of 13 in his hometown of North Shields in the North East of England and later became involved in the skiffle craze, a kind of fusion of American folk, country, jazz and blues, which took music by storm. UK. His skiffle band The Heppers evolved into The Wildcats, a rock and roll band that became popular throughout the north of England, in part due to Valentine’s habit of rolling on the floor while playing guitar.
Valentine formed The Animals in 1963 with singer Eric Burdon, bassist Chas Chandler, keyboardist Alan Price and drummer John Steel.
The band’s most famous hit came in 1964, when their rock version of the popular song “The House of the Rising Sun” peaked at number one in the UK and US charts.
The song, whose opening riff was a rite of passage for budding guitarists around the world, had such a resonance in America that many were surprised to learn that the band came from the industrial heart of England.
“The opening of Rising Sun will never sound the same! … You didn’t just touch him, you lived him! I am writing my heart broken by the sudden news of Hilton’s death, “Burdon wrote on Twitter.