The Zombies are an English rock band, formed in 1962 in St Albans and led by Rod Argent (piano, organ and vocals) and Colin Blunstone (vocals). The group scored British and American hits in 1964 with Shes Not There. In the US, two further singles, Tell Her No in 1965 and, in 1969, Time of the Season, were also successful. Their 1968 album, Odessey and Oracle, comprising twelve songs by the groups principal songwriters, Argent and Chris White, is ranked number 100 on Rolling Stone magazines list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The group formed in 1962 in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, and gained their initial reputation playing the Old Verulamians Rugby Club in that city. The band was formed while the members were at school. Some sources state that Argent, Atkinson and Grundy were at St Albans School, while Blunstone and White were students at St Albans Boys Grammar School (since renamed Verulam School). Argent was a boy chorister in St Albans Cathedral Choir. Their choice of names was out of desperation, and the Zombies won out over Chatterley and the Gamekeepers, according to Blunstone and White. After winning a beat-group competition sponsored by the London Evening News, they signed to Decca and recorded their first hit, Shes Not There (Argents second song, written specifically for this session).[citation needed] It was released in mid-1964 and peaked at number 12 in the UK, their only UK Top 40 hit. This minor-key, jazz-tinged number, distinguished by its musicianship and Blunstones breathy vocal, was unlike anything heard in British rock at the time. It was first aired in the United States in early August 1964 on New York City rock station WINS by Stan Z. Burns, who debuted the song on his daily noontime Hot Spot. The tune began to catch on in early fall and eventually climbed to No.2 in early December. Like many other British Invasion groups, the Zombies were sent to the United States to tour behind their new hit single. Among their early U.S. gigs were Murray the Ks Christmas shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre, where the band played seven performances a day. On January 12, 1965, the band made its first in-person appearance on U.S. television, on the first episode of NBCs Hullabaloo. They played Shes Not There (and their latest single Tell Her No) to a screaming, hysterical audience full of teenage girls. After the follow-up single to Shes Not There, Leave Me Be, was unsuccessful in the UK (and was not issued as a single in the US, although it was on the B side of Tell Her No), Rod Argents Tell Her No became another big seller in the United States in 1965, peaking at No.6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March. Tell Her No, however, failed to make the Top 40 in the UK. Subsequent recordings such as Shes Coming Home, Whenever Youre Ready, Is This the Dream, Indication and Gotta Get a Hold of Myself failed to achieve the success of the previous two singles (although the Zombies had continued success in Scandinavia and the Philippines). A song by The Zombies released only as a B-side (to Whenever Youre Ready) in the US and the UK in 1965, I Love You subsequently became a sizable hit for the group People! in the United States in 1968. The Zombiess first UK LP, Begin Here (1965) was an equal mix of original songs and R&B covers. While continuing recording in 1965–66 and trying to achieve chart success, they recorded enough material for a follow-up album, but the lack of chart success kept most of those tracks from being issued. In 1967 the Zombies signed to CBS Records for whom they recorded the album Odessey and Oracle (odyssey was accidentally misspelled by Terry Quirk, an art teacher who designed the cover.) Because the bands budget could not cover session musicians, they used a Mellotron. As another concession toward the limited budget, Rod Argent and Chris White (who, due to their songwriting royalties, had earned more than the rest of the members) personally paid for the stereo mixes. By the time Odessey and Oracle was released in April 1968, the group had disbanded (in December 1967). The album sold poorly and was given a US release only because musician Al Kooper, then signed to Columbia Records, convinced his label of the albums merits. One of its tracks, Time of the Season, written by Argent, was released as a single and eventually (1969) became a nationwide hit (Billboard Hot 100 peak position: No.3). In 1968, Rod Argent and Chris White began working on material for a possible new band when they were approached by CBS to do another Zombies album. Several new tracks were cut with a line-up of Argent, Hugh Grundy, Jim Rodford (bass) and Rick Birkett (guitar), and were combined with some old Decca out-takes and demos. Unfortunately the album, scheduled for release in 1969, was canceled and only a couple of the songs, Imagine the Swan (one of the newly recorded songs) and If It Dont Work Out (a demo of a song that Dusty Springfield recorded and released in 1965) were put out as singles instead. (Some of this material was released on several compilation albums during the 70s and 80s, and the album, titled R.I.P., was finally released in Japan in 2008.)
Posted on: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 00:43:28 +0000
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