Frijid Pink – The House of the Rising Sun / Heartbreak Hotel [year unknown; London Records, Parrot]

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With their take on the much-covered lead track, pulled from their self-titled debut album, Frijid Pink paint the blues rock standard in acid rock tones, with buzzy guitar and swaggering bass complementing the blaring vocals.  Outside of that, it’s a serviceable but unremarkable treatment.  More interesting is their raucous take on Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” on the B-side, with vocals belting out over jabbing piano and more hot electric guitar, with a raging escalation leading to the track’s fade-out finish.  Though the second song handily upstages the first, both songs show the band in good form at the start of their career.