The Zombies was a British Invasion group. From 1962 to 1967, the group consisted of:
Colin Blunstone – lead vocals
Rod Argent – organ, vocals
Paul Atkinson – guitar, vocals
Chris White – bass, vocals
Hugh Grundy – drums
The group won a music competition sponsored by a London newspaper and were signed a recording contract with Decca in 1964.
“Rod Argent built the lyrics of ‘She’s Not There’ from a John Lee Hooker song, whose title ‘No One Told Me’ became the opening phrase of the Zombies song. The jazzy rock tune, which phased in and out of minor key, was a huge hit. It sold over one million copies.
The next US single was “Tell Her No”, the Beatlesque tune which repeats the word “no” 63 times. But the band only had mixed success in the next couple of years and broke up in December 1967.
Yet one track from the well-regarded, but marginally selling, album Odessey and Oracle, “Time of the Season”, “written by Argent, was released as a single and eventually became a nationwide hit.”
“After the Zombies disbanded, Rod Argent formed the band called Argent in 1969, with White as a non-performing songwriter.” Russ Ballard was the lead vocalist. Has anyone moved further alphabetically in a band than Rod Argent?
In the absence of the actual Zombies, one promoter hired four kids from Texas to tour America “pretending to be a defunct British psych-rock band.” Two of the band members would go on to form the group ZZ Top.
The real Zombies reformed with the same lineup in 1997 but broke up quickly. Argent & Blunstone fronted a band starting in 2000, which morphed into The Zombies by 2004. Rod Argent’s cousin Jim Rodford played in these lineups as well as with Argent.
LINKS
She’s Not There – The Zombies (1964 – #12 UK, #2 US Billboard, #2 in Canada) HERE or HERE or HERE.
Tell Her No – The Zombies (1965 – #6 US) HERE or HERE or HERE
Time of the Season – The Zombies (1969- #1 Canada, #3 for two weeks US Billboard) HERE or HERE or HERE
Hold Your Head Up – Argent (1972 – #5 UK, #5 US Billboard) HERE (single) or HERE (long version) or HERE (long version)
What a lovely intro Rog, I’d never heard of them …thats a fun part of our meme, isn’t it, learning about things one does not know about jet…
Have a nice abcwednes-day / – week
♫ M e l d y ♫ (abc-w-team)
http://melodymusic.nl/abc-wednesday-18z/
I remember the Zombies but I really didn’t care much
for them so it’s no surprise to me that they split up!
BTW I and my husband Ian had a lovely meal with Leslie
last night she really is lovely xx
Best wishes,
Di.
ABCW team.
This group is before my time, but the name is quite intriguing. I’ll check them out on You Tube.
My ABC WEDNESDAY
Oh my, I am so out of it when it comes to late 60’s music.
Glad you can enlighten me.
Loved the Zombies, I’ve got their first single stored in a box somewhere; may have to dig it out and relive the 60s:-)
I forgot about the Zombies- I figured you were going to talk about the TV series, but I should have known better, what with your history on ABC Wednesday of musical groups. Thanks for the reminder.
I guess I must have missed them, but will try Youtube and see if there are any oldies and goodies there that will catch me up…..
Very informative on zombies.
Happy ABCW!
I am sorry, I didn ‘t know these people. Thanks for this post!
Wil.
I remember them
Hope you are having a great week!
Today I feel like a zombie – not the musical ones, but the movie ones:)
I don’t know if it was my blog last week (the internet connection was weak), but last Wed. I tried and tried to log on here, but kept getting a code. Just wanted you to know I tried:):) Have a great week, Roger!
Just because, the most unexpected Zombies variation, from the second Kill Bill:
THAT’S GREAT, Chaz!
Very informative.
Ah ~ Shades of my ‘younger years’ ~ great post for Z ~ so informative!
Happy Weekend to you ~ ^_^
Ha! I remember the chorus of “Tell Her No” The other day I was telling the Husband how back then I thought so many of the British bands were American ones.