Fact #30955

John Steel (drummer, The Animals) : We played Liverpool on May 17, 1964 and then drove to London where Mickie (Most) had booked a studio for ITV's Ready Steady Go! Because of the reaction we were getting to 'Rising Sun,' we asked to record it and he said, 'Okay we'll do it at the same session.' We set up for balance, played a few bars for the engineer - it was mono with no overdubs - and we only did one take. We listened to it and Mickie said, 'That's it, it's a single.' The engineer said it was too long, but instead of chopping out a bit, Mickie had the courage to say, 'We're in a microgroove world now, we will release it.' A few weeks later it was #1 all over the world. When we knocked The Beatles off the top in America, they sent us a telegram which read, 'Congratulations from The Beatles (a group)'"
(Source : 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh)

John Steel (drummer, The Animals] : It was a mono studio, and I remember we just did half of Rising Sun to get the balance right, then we did it in one live take. Mickie said, 'That's it, come in and listen.' We went into the control room and Dave, the engineer, played it back for us, and Mickie said, 'Yeah!' and you could see that he'd only just realised how good it was. That's when the engineer said, 'Er, it's four and a half minutes long.' This was the era of the three minute single, and the radio wouldn't play anything longer. To give him his due, Mickie said, "Oh, the hell with it, let's go with it." Deejays loved it, because it gave them longer to go and make a cup of tea.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black)

Mickie Most (producer): I think the whole thing was done in 15 minutes and the studios then were