French studio project Santa Esmeralda's electrifying disco-rock-flamenco version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood was an enormeous hit in 1977, but with success, problems also arose. The idea for this arrangement had come from Sam Choueka who had not been credited for it and subsequently received no royalites from the million-selling single and album, and he took the producers Nicolas Skorsky & Jean-Manuel de Scarano to court. Lead singer Leroy Gomez and musical director Raymond \"Don Ray\" Donnez sided with him and as a consequence found themselves excluded from the project.
Wasting no time, Skorsky & de Scarano finished the second album in the final months of 1977 bringing in a new lead singer Jimmy Goings whose vocals were grittier and rockier than Gomez' soulful, yearning vocals, and Jean-Claude Petit became the new musical director. The second album built on the same formula - a sidelong suite with gorgeous rich textures of Spanish guitars, strings, horns and handclaps, this time centered about The Animals' House Of The Rising Sun, and the side 2 featuring a 7-minute disco track, a ballad, and a shorter rock number. Don Ray stroke back with Cerrone, also recording a flamenco-themed version of House Of The Rising Sun under the name Revelación and a printed sticker \"Original Version\" on the front cover. Both LP's were released in January 1978.
Santa Esmeralda's House charted as a top 20 hit in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium, the LP charting at #4 in Austria, #12 in Holland, #24 in Germany and #78 in the US and was also a big hit in South America.
I have expanded the album with the single edit of Rising Sun and their instrumental cut Sevilla Nights which was included on the million-selling soundtrack album for the 1978 movie Thank God It's Friday.
