The Zombies

Monday is here again, and that means it’s time for Monday’s Music Moves Me! We were given the theme of Halloween, and well, you know me - I have to be just a little bit different!



Today I’m going to tell you a little bit about a rock band that hails from England. They call themselves:

In 1958, Rod Argent, Paul Atkinson, and Hugh Grundy were just school boys jamming together. They had a few others join in from time to time, but these three were the main dudes. Their original name was the Mustangs, but they quickly realised that there were other groups with that name. The original bass player (Paul Arnold) came up with the name, and while he left the band soon after, the name stuck.  Colin Blunstone was the lead singer.

In 1964, they signed a recording contract with Decca, and released their first hit, “She’s Not There”.

Like many other British Invasion groups, the Zombies were sent to the United States to tour behind their new hit single. On 12 January 1965, the band made its first in-person appearance on US television, on the first episode of NBC's Hullabaloo. They played "She's Not There" (and their latest single "Tell Her No") to a screaming, hysterical audience full of teenage girls.

In 1967, the Zombies signed a recording contract with 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 band's budget could not cover session musicians, they used a Mellotron. According to Argent, this was in fact John Lennon's, and had been left in the studio as the Beatles had just finished recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

By the time Odessey and Oracle was released in April 1968, the band had broken up (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 album's merits. One of its tracks, "Time of the Season", written by Argent, was released as a single (in 1968) and eventually (1969) became a nationwide hit.

After the Zombies disbanded, Rod Argent formed the band called Argent in 1969. Atkinson worked in A&R at Columbia and Grundy joined him there after a brief spell in auto sales.

In 1991, the band briefly reunited as the Zombies with keyboardist Sebastian Santa Maria, and recorded the album New World.

Blunstone and Argent did not play together again until late 1999. Argent spotted Blunstone in the audience while performing at a charity concert for jazz musician John Dankworth and invited him onstage for an impromptu reunion. This positive experience set the stage for further collaborations to come.

The twosome performed together and reunited a few times with the other band members several times over the next several years.

In 2015, The Zombies released their sixth album, Still Got That Hunger.  They toured the US to promote this album.

In 2017 the four surviving original members (Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, Chris White, and Hugh Grundy) re-united to carry out a North American tour marking the 50th anniversary of the recording of Odessey & Oracle. The first stop on this tour was a first-time performance in Jamaica, as the featured artist on the Flower Power Cruise on the Celebrity Summit while in port in Falmouth.

The band has been nominated three times for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as of October 2017, but has not yet been inducted.




Do you enjoy The Zombies?  What are your plans for Halloween?  Tell me about it in the comments.

Today’s post is part of the Monday’s Music Moves Me blog hop, hosted by X-Mas Dolly, and co-hosted by JAmerican Spice, Stacy Uncorked and Curious as a Cathy.  Be sure to stop by the hosts and visit the other participants.