Danny McCulloch

Daniel Joseph "Danny" McCulloch (18 July 1945 – 29 January 2015) was an English musician best known as the bassist of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Eric Burdon & The Animals.

Danny McCulloch was born in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. Despite a common surname, he was not a relation of either Henry McCullough (who did work under original Animal Chas Chandler's management) or Jimmy McCulloch, both members of the 1970s band Wings.

McCulloch commenced performing publicly at the age of eleven, playing skiffle music. His first band was The Avro Boys, from Shepherd's Bush, who became Tony Craven & The Casuals in the late 1950s. In 1960, The Casuals linked up with new singer Frankie Reid and McCulloch remained with the group until October 1962. During his time with Frankie Reid & The Casuals, one of the band's drummers was Mitch Mitchell.

McCulloch and drummer Derek Sirmon next joined Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages and stayed until May 1963. In 1964, McCullough and Sirmon joined Woking band, The Plebs, who recorded a lone single. During mid-1966, McCulloch worked briefly with The Carl Douglas Set, until he was approached by Eric Burdon to join Burdon's new band.

In late 1966, after the breakup of the original incarnation of The Animals, McCulloch joined the "New Animals", being the first "new" Animal hired by Eric Burdon. McCulloch in turn introduced Burdon to guitarist and violinist John Weider, who in turn introduced Burdon to guitarist Vic Briggs. The reconstituted group released three albums and a series of hit singles, including "San Franciscan Nights", "Monterey" and "Sky Pilot". All band members were credited as co-authors on the two albums from which these singles were released. It was only as of the third album of the reconstituted group, Every One of Us, that songwriting credit was primarily that of Eric Burdon. Keyboardist Zoot Money also joined the band at that time. Shortly prior to the release of this third album, McCulloch and Briggs were both fired from the band. McCulloch was replaced by Weider switching from guitar to bass, while Briggs was replaced by Andy Summers, later of The Police.

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