Alan Price biography
As the organist in the first Animals lineup, Alan
Price was perhaps the most important instrumental contributor to their
early run of hits. He left the group in 1965 after only a year or so of
international success (he can be seen talking about his departure with Bob
Dylan in the rockumentary Don't Look Back) to
work on a solo career. Leading the Alan Price Set, he had a Top Ten
British hit in 1966 with a reworking of "I Put a Spell on You,"
complete with Animals-ish organ breaks and
bluesy vocals. 
His subsequent run of British hits
between 1966 and 1968 -- "Hi-Lili-Hi-Lo,"
"Simon Smith and His Dancing Bear," "The House That Jack
Built," and "Don't Stop the Carnival" -- were in a much lighter
vein, drawing from British music hall influences. "Simon Smith and His
Dancing Bear," from 1967, was one of the first Randy
Newman songs to gain international exposure, though Price's version
-- like all his British hits -- went virtually unnoticed in the