This week, EHSDA highlighted the basics of evacuation procedures in an emergency. With that in mind, the Song of the Week is a song that was popularized by the Animals in 1965, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.”
Written by songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill, the song was originally intended to be recorded by the Righteous Brothers before the Animals got ahold of it.
The song became a huge hit for the band, hitting #2 on the U.K. Singles chart and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. The song was popular with graduating high school and college students for obvious reasons, but it also became an anthem for U.S. soldiers in Vietnam.
The song has also been covered by many other artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Blue Oyster Cult, Bon Jovi, the Partridge Family, D.O.A., Midnight Oil, and Alice Cooper. A notable cover was done in 1982 by David Johansen (lead singer of the New York Dolls and later known as Buster Poindexter for a while) as part of an Animals medley that was popular in the early days of MTV.