The band’s record label, ABKCO Music, announced Valentine’s death in a statement on Friday, which learned of the death of his wife’s guitarist, Germaine Valentine. The statement did not identify the cause of death.
Valentine started playing guitar when he was a teenager growing up in North Shields, Northumberland, the label said. After perfecting her playing skills with other groups, Valentine was recruited in 1963 to form The Animals, along with Eric Burdon, key player Alan Price, bassist Chas Chandler and drummer John Steel.
The band’s fame reached new levels with the 1964 version of “The House of the Rising Sun,” a traditional folk ballad that had previously been performed by folk singers such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.
But The Animals’ transformed the song into a rock ‘n’ roll hit, opening with Valentine’s iconic electric guitar riff. It was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, topping the charts in the UK, US and Canada. Rolling Stone ranked him at number 123 on the list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
In 1994, the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which called the Animals “master performers of existing songs, updating them with working-class toughness and giving them new life.”
Valentine remained with The Animals for four years and would later join several meetings. He released a solo album in 1969. He played with various groups in recent years, during which time he lived in Connecticut.
“Rising Sun’s opening work will never sound the same!” Burdon wrote on Instagram about Valentine’s death. “Not only did you play it, you lived it! Heartbroken by the sudden news of Hilton’s passing. We had a great time together, Geordie’s boy. From the North Shields to the whole world … Rock In Peace.”