Don_Krider's Full Review: Absolutely the Best by The Zombies
In a November, 1978, interview with the rock music magazine Crawdaddy, singer-songwriter Billy Joel was quoted as saying, "My favorite band was the Zombies - Rod Argent had some great keyboard riffs."
Unlike the zombies featured in horror films, The Zombies who conquered the U. S. pop charts in 1964 were pretty normal-looking guys who sang some of the best pop-rock tunes recorded in the 1960's.
The Zombies scored back-to-back Top 10 hits in 1964-65 with "She's Not There" and "Tell Her No" (also scoring the soundtrack to the film "Bunny Lake Is Missing" at their peak in popularity), but they then found themselves unable to score additional U. S. Top 40 hits and the British band called it quits by 1968.
For a group whose songs were covered by numerous artists (including Dusty Springfield, Santana, The Vanilla Fudge and The UK Subs) and with their musician fans, such as John Lennon and The Hollies, wanting to produce their records, their break-up was a sad one.
Then their record label released "Time Of The Season" in 1969 and The Zombies were suddenly back in the U. S. Top 10 again. Not only that, but they also had their first million-selling single!
Such is the rock 'n' roll magic --- rags-to-riches-to-rags and back again. Would "Time Of The Season" lead to a Zombies' reunion? Unfortunately for their fans, it didn't, as I'll explain later in this review.
As the 16 tracks on the CD, "Absolutely The Best: The Zombies," clearly show, the music of The Zombies is as charming and irresistible as anything from the mod, Swingin' Sixties, and worthy of a place in your CD collection.
The album:
"Absolutely The Best: The Zombies" features 16 tracks on a single CD, including all five of The Zombies' Billboard magazine Hot 100 hits of 1964-69 (the band almost always scored much higher in Cashbox magazine, Billboard's chart competitor): "She's Not There" (# 2 in Billboard in 1964, it reached # 1 in Cashbox), "Tell Her No" (# 6 in both Billboard and Cashbox), "She's Coming Home" (# 58 in Billboard and # 48 in Cashbox), "I Want You Back Again" (# 95 in Billboard and # 92 in Cashbox) and "Time Of The Season" (# 3 in Billboard and # 1 in Cashbox).
The 6-page CD booklet features a full-color cover shot of The Zombies, the only photo in the booklet (a second, black-and-white shot appears on the CD jewel box's back cover). The booklet features a short, 3-page biography of the band by Ed Johnson-Ott of NUVO Newsweekly.
The track listing in the CD booklet features chart information (including several songs that charted in Billboard's "bubbling under the Hot 100" chart but never hit the Hot 100 list, which is interesting), songwriter data and short, one or two-sentence comments on each track from Johnson-Ott.
Missing from the CD booklet are song lyrics and a discography.
The tracks:
"She's Not There," "Leave Me Be," "Tell Her No," "The Way I Feel Inside," "She's Coming Home," "Nothing's Changed" (from the film "Bunny Lake Is Missing"), "I Want You Back Again," "Whenever You're Ready," "If It Don't Work Out" (covered by Dusty Spingfield), "I Love You" (a group called People covered this Zombies' tune for a # 14 hit on Billboard's U. S. charts in 1968), "Is This The Dream," "Remember You" (also from the movie "Bunny Lake Is Missing"), "Just Out Of Reach," "Gotta Get A Hold Of Myself" (a cover of a song written by Clint Ballard, Jr., and Angela Riela), "Time Of The Season" and "Imagine The Swan."
The band:
The Zombies featured the enormous talents of lead singer/guitarist Colin Blunstone, keyboardist/vocalist Rod Argent, bassist/vocalist Chris White, guitarist Paul Atkinson and drummer Hugh Grundy.
Formed while still teenagers in 1961 in St. Albans, England, The Zombies featured Argent's classical music-based keyboard work (with a healthy dose of jazz and rhythm and blues influences evident in his playing style).
The band's multi-part harmonies and lovely melodies, combined with Blunstone's smooth, sweet lead vocal talents, are still outstanding to listen to. Having three talented songwriters in the group (Argent, White and Blunstone) also made the band unique among the British Invasion groups, many of whom used material written by non-band members (Graham Gouldman, later of 10CC ("I'm Not In Love"), wrote songs that became hits for The Hollies, Herman's Hermits and The Yardbirds, for instance).
Elvis Presley:
Visiting the Elvis Presley mansion at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, in the mid-1960s, The Zombies were told by Elvis' uncle, according to the CD booklet, "Elvis loves you guys and he'll be really sorry to have missed you." Argent apparently thought this was just fake "southern hospitality" until he discovered that Elvis' personal jukebox "was loaded with Zombies' singles."
The Zombies entered the U. S. charts in October, 1964, with "She's Not There," written by Argent, which peaked at # 2 in Billboard during a 15-week run. The song charted higher on Billboard's competitor, the Cashbox magazine charts, reaching # 1.
For Argent, only 19-years-old at the time, that Cashbox # 1 led to a phone call from his mom informing him that "you're the first band after The Beatles to reach number one with a self-written composition," according to the CD booklet.
The Zombies were, and always would be, more popular in the United States than they were on the British charts for some reason. I suspect the band's mixture of pop-jazz-rhythm and blues just fit the wild mix that was American Top 40 radio in the 1960s (a rather joyous mix of all forms of music that is sadly more segregated these days).
The Zombies scored again in early 1965 with "Tell Her No," also by Argent, which peaked at # 6 in Billboard. The group did numerous television appearances and toured constantly in the United States (including a tour with Patti LaBelle).
Both "She's Not There" and "Tell Her No" appeared on the band's debut U. S. album, "The Zombies," which peaked at # 39 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart in 1965 during a 39-week chart run.
For some reason, perhaps being on the small Parrot Records label, the group's follow-up singles each did worse on the U. S. charts (in 1965, "She's Coming Home" (a Cashbox Top 50 hit) peaked at # 58 in Billboard, followed by the awful showing of "I Want You Back Again, which peaked at # 95 in Billboard).
The Zombies tried to fix things by switching labels. Both John Lennon and The Hollies offered to produce them, but The Zombies apparently preferred to produce themselves.
With band members Argent and White producing, the group's next album, "Odessey and Oracle" (according to the book, "The MOJO Collection: The Greatest Albums Of All Time," edited by Jim Irvin, the album's title was "misspelt by the sleeve designer") was released in 1968. Released everywhere, except in the United States.
Sales were dismal and disappointing (what does one do when one's album isn't released in the country where your biggest fan base is?), though critics adored the album. In their native England, the album didn't even hit the charts.
"Odessey and Oracle" is an amazing effort, recorded in the same Abbey Road studios where The Beatles recorded their masterpiece, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," it reflects the same psychedelia that was gripping the pop charts in 1967 as they recorded the album.
In the studio on a tight budget, The Zombies were shocked as Abbey Road engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil MacDonald tried to disconnect jerry-rigged 4-track recorders The Beatles had just used on "Sgt. Pepper." The Zombies insisted that the equipment be left as is because they wanted to be just as playful when they recorded.
Though they wound up going over budget (paying additional money out of their own pockets to finish the recording), the group produced an album in "Odessey and Oracle" that most critics rank up there with The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" and The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds."
However, making a great record means nothing if no one hears it. When the album failed to chart in England, it wound up, initially, not being released in the United States.
Guitarist Atkinson then quit the group, leading Argent to end the group officially by 1968. The band's lead singer, Blunstone, even left the full-time music business for a short while, working for an insurance company.
Then Al Kooper at CBS Records in the United States, who had discovered "Odessey and Oracle" while visiting England, talked his label into releasing the album in the United States.
To me, it's amazing that CBS then released a few singles by the band that all flopped before a number of U. S. deejays latched onto a single from the album, "Time Of The Season," and played the heck out of it (flop with one or two singles these days, and most labels will dump you quickly).
"Time Of The Season," with only radio airplay and no band to tour in support of it, rose to # 3 in Billboard (# 1 in Cashbox) in 1969. During its 13-weeks on the Billboard chart, the tune, written by Argent, sold more than one million copies in the U. S., earning a Gold Record Award.
In turn, "Time Of The Season" propelled "Odessey and Oracle" to # 95 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart. Despite pressure to reform, The Zombies chose to go out on a high note, with Argent explaining, in the CD's liner notes, why he wouldn't "cash-in" on the group's post-mortem success by saying, "It was a special time that, once over, could never be recaptured. I just wanted to leave it in its undiluted form."
The members today:
After the band's break-up, Blunstone returned to recording (for a time he recorded as Neil MacArthur, but he has had several hits in England under his own name) and may be best-known for his work as guest vocalist on four albums by The Alan Parsons Project ("Pyramid," "Eye In The Sky," "Ammonia Avenue" and "Vulture Culture;" he also worked on Alan Parsons' "Time Machine").
Blunstone has also worked with Steve Hackett ("Watcher Of The Skies: Genesis Revisited"), Exile, Mike Batt and others.
Argent formed a group (produced by fellow Zombie Chris White) with guitarist/vocalist Russ Ballard called "Argent" (probably not a lot of thought put into the name, I dare say) in 1969. They produced five Top 200 albums before splitting-up in 1976, including "All Together Now" in 1972, which hit # 23 (during a 23-week chart run).
Argent, the group, also scored one monster hit in 1972 with "Hold Your Head Up," which peaked at # 5 during its 15 weeks on the charts. It was also the group's only hit single. Another of the group's album tracks, "God Gave Rock And Roll To You" (written by Ballard), was later covered by the rock group Kiss. Both tunes are on the Argent CD, "Anthology," which also features Argent's remake of The Zombies' "Time Of The Season" (I prefer the original Zombies' version, I must note).
In more recent years, Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone have resumed recording together as a duo (their "Out Of The Shadows" album in 2001, for me at least, brought back some of the musical fun that was The Zombies). They sometimes tour together as well.
Argent and Blunstone are currently touring the United States (August 2003) --- go to " http://www.rodargent.com/venues.htm " for details.
Guitarist Paul Atkinson went into record label artist and repertory (A&R) work after The Zombies. Among the acts he has worked with as an A&R man are Abba, Aerosmith and Paul McCartney (according to the book "Music Hound Rock: The Essential Album Guide," edited by Gary Graff and Daniel Durcholz).
There was, finally, a Zombies reunion album recorded in 1991, "New World," but it remains unreleased in the United States (Rod Argent appears on only one track on the album, a remake of "Time Of The Season").
The band also did a one-shot reunion gig in 1997 in London (ever since the late 1960s, a number of what the group members call "imposter Zombies" have been touring as "The Zombies" without any original members in the groups, so be careful about attending any "Zombies" concert --- for information, visit the very informative, unofficial "fan page" at http://users.aol.com/bocad/zom.htm ).
In 1994, a rather odd collection of Seatle-based bands, including The Posies (who covered "Leave Me Be"), recorded a tribute album, "The World Of The Zombies," with each act covering a different Zombies' tune.
The best tracks:
"She's Not There":
With Argent's keyboards guiding the way and with a sound full of youthful exhuberance, The Zombies are the epitomy of the Merseybeat sound on "She's Not There," a little bit Beatles and a little bit The Dave Clark Five here but with a very unique sound all their own (not bad for some lads in their late teens).
The keyboards, drums, guitars and bass all speed up when the band hits the chorus, giving the tune a powerful sense of urgency in its lyrics as the band sings:
"Well no one told me about her / the way she lied / well no one told me about her / how many people cried / but it's too late to say you're sorry / how would I know, why should I care / please don't bother trying to find her / she's not there / well let me tell you about the way she looked / the way she acted, the color of her hair / her eyes were soft and cool, her eyes were clear / but she's not there..."
As you listen, keep in mind that songwriter Rod Argent was only 19 when he wrote those intelligent lyrics.
"Leave Me Be":
"Leave Me Be" is a gorgeous ballad written by bassist Chris White. Full of gently strummed, ringing acoustic guitar through most of the tune, the song picks up steam with Rod Argent's wild, jazzy keyboard playing on the chorus.
Although never a hit single, the tune is a favorite of mine --- the song's lyrics describe perfectly how many teenagers deal with rejection (well, at least how I dealt with it, anyway):
"If it seems that I'm too quiet, that's 'cause I'm missin' her / my mind tells me I have to fight, but I can't help missin' her / you'd better leave me alone, you'd better leave me alone / until I can think about her without feelin' sorry for myself / you'd better leave me be 'til I don't need her anymore / I don't wanna see her again until I'm sure I'm over her / but still feeling tired and wanting is not like I thought it would be / love just cannot end at parting, my world's dropped from under me..."
"Tell Her No":
Another glorious Top 10 Merseybeat rocker written by Argent, "Tell Her No" contains an interesting twist in its lyrics. While The Beatles might warn you that if you don't treat the girl right, they'll steal her away from you, fella, in a song like "You're Going To Lose That Girl," The Zombies are begging you not to steal their girlfriends in "Tell Her No":
"And if she should tell you 'come closer' / and if she tempts you with her charms / tell her no, no, no, no no-no-no-no / ... / don't hurt me now for her love belongs to me / I know she's the kind of girl / who'd throw my love away / but I still love her so / ... / and if she tells you 'I love you, whoa / just remember she said that to me / tell her no..."
"I Love You":
Neat, psychedelic pop, written by Chris White, "I Love You" was covered by a group named People in 1968 for a Top 20 hit. The Zombies version is definitive with a pristine clear pop production and a swirling keyboard solo on the bridge, memorable for its Beach Boys-like chorus of "I love you, I love you, I love you" as the lead singer's voice gets tense with urgency as he laments "I don't know what to say!!!" --- he wants to tell his girlfirend he loves her, but he can't get up the courage to do so:
"...I should tell you, I love you, I do / my words should explain, but my words won't come / I shouldn't hide my love deep inside / my words should explain, but my words won't come / I should tell you just how I feel, and I keep tryin' / but something holds me back when I try to tell you / I love you, I love you, I love you, yes I do..."
"Just Out Of Reach":
Blunstone's "Just Out Of Reach" reminds me of Paul Revere and The Raiders' (I'm thinking "Hungry" and "Good Thing" here), but with layers of Argent's keyboard-work adding icing to a tasty, funky, r&b-tinged rocker (impressive drum work adds to the song's impact).
"Time Of The Season":
A tune I never tire of hearing, Rod Argent's "Time Of The Season" sounds great on a turntable or over a car radio's speakers, uplifting like good gospel music but with a rock edge underlying its gorgeous harmonies (I must admit to "misheard lyrics syndrome" when I first heard this in 1969 --- the line "it's the time of the season for loving" sounded like "it's the time of the season for Zombies" when I first heard this back then; I know, but it "seemed" to make sense at the time possibly due to some deejay at KDKA in Pittsburgh where I lived at the time).
Pop production doesn't get any better than this million-selling Top 10 hit from 1969. For fun, listen to it through headphones to capture the true nature of the mix, which dances guitar and drums into one ear as the keyboards waltz in the other ear while the harmonies leap ear-to-ear --- neat effect.
With its memorable throbbing bass pattern backed by percussion intro, "Time Of The Season" is instantly recognizeable on classic rock stations to this day. Argent's keyboard work here is spectacular. His songwriting is on a scale equal to the pop-perfection of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson, with fascinating lyrics:
"It's the time of the season / when love runs high / in this time, give it to me easy / and let me try / with pleasured hands / to take you in the sun to / promised lands / to show you every one / it's the time of the season for loving / what's your name? / who's your daddy? / is he rich like me? / has he taken any time / to show you what you need to live? / tell it to me slowly / tell me what I really want to know / it's the time of the season for loving..."
"Imagine The Swan":
As The Zombies splintered after 1967, Rod Argent and Chris White (the other three Zombies had moved on to other projects) entered the studio with some other musicians to see what they could come up with.
Those sessions eventually became the group Argent. "Imagine The Swan" was recorded during this post-Zombies, pre-Argent stage, with Rob Henrit on drums (he later joined The Kinks) and Russ Ballard on guitar. Rod Argent sings lead here on this beautiful ballad, dominated by a gorgeous baroque harpsichord and a melody that reminds me of Bach.
CBS Records, desperate for a follow-up to "Time Of The Season," released this should-have-been hit as a Zombies recording, which bubbled under the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at # 109 in 1969). The tune did go Hot 100 in Cashbox magazine, however, peaking at # 77.
Argent and White wrote most of The Zombies songs. They wrote "Imagine The Swan" together, with some intelligent, lovely lyrics about a lover who encounters an old flame who isn't like the person he remembered:
"Well I have a picture in color of you / and it's there in my room to remind me of you / so it was with surprise that I saw you today / and I did not recognize you, girl, what more can I say? / for the colors are gone / you've become kind of gray / and you're not like the swan / that I knew yesterday / now the pictures are wrong / you've become kind of gray / I imagine the swan / that you were yesterday..."
Recommendation:
"Absolutely The Best: The Zombies" is a good introduction to one of the most underrated bands of the 1960s (sales-wise, at least). Fans of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Turtles and The Guess Who will enjoy this collection.
All 16 tracks are true gems, with all the band's chart hits included in this collection. You'll enjoy the drive down memory lane with this playing on your stereo.
The album was released in 1999 by Fuel Records/Varese Sarabande Records.
On the web:
Official Rod Argent: http://www.rodargent.com
Official Colin Blunstone: http://www.colinblunstone.co.uk
Unofficial (but still amazing) Zombies website: http://users.aol.com/bocad/zom.htm
Unofficial Colin Blunstone site: http://www.theavenueonline.info/site1/bios/colin.htm
VH-1's Colin Blunstone site: http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/blunstone_colin/bio.jhtml
Mystic Records' Colin Blunstone website: http://www.mysticrecords.co.uk/Blunstone.htm
Colin Blunstone on tour: http://www.dgifford.ndirect.co.uk/cb/gigs.html
Colin Blunstone/Rod Argent 2003 U. S. tour dates: http://www.rodargent.com/venues.htm
Capitol/EMI's 20-track 24-bit digitally remastered CD "Greatest" by Raspberries (the original lineup --- Eric Carmen, Wally Bryson, Dave Smalley and Jim Bonfanti --- who sang the million-seller "Go All The Way" reunited in 2004-2005) was released in May of 2005 in the U. S. and Europe. It features all 7 of Raspberries Hot 100 singles, has 20 tracks and runs 78:53 minutes: http://www.epinions.com/content_186044681860
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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