It's My Life

Animals lead singer Eric Burden sings about how he's going to go from "Rags to Sable," meaning he'll do what it takes to make it.

This was written by Carl D'Errico (music), and Roger Atkins (lyrics). The duo were at the time working for Screen Gems Music, part of the the New York City music scene that included the Brill Building. "We've Gotta Get Out of This Place" (Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil) and "Don't Bring Me Down" (Gerry Goffin and Carole King) were also hits for the Animals, which originated from the Brill Building songwriting scene.

Carl D'Errico: "'It's My Life" came about when Mickie Most, the producer of The Animals, said he was looking for songs for the group. The writers got busy writing and then handed in their acetates and there was a tall stack of them waiting for Mickie when he came in from London. Three of the songs in that stack were "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," "Don't Bring Me Down" and "It's My Life." Actually, the melody for "It's My Life" was the second one that I wrote for it. When I played the first one for Emil, he said that it didn't have enough punch and it was the wrong groove, so I rewrote it. After the rewrite everyone knew it was a hit. Some of the writers would play their songs for one another to get feedback - we used these small rooms with pianos in them, so people would hop around and check out what was happening next door." (Courtesy: www.spectropop.com. Thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for above 2)

The Animals recorded this when they were touring America in 1965.

Burden recorded a new version of this as a solo artist in 1974.