The Zombies - Collection [24 Tracks]

The Zombies – The Zombies Collection [24 Tracks]

Label: Green Line Records – CDGLP 445
Format:
CD, Compilation
Country: Switzerland
Released: 1989
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Rock

1 Going Out Of My Head 0:00
2 Leave Me Be 3:03
3 Gotta Get A Hold On Myself 5:13
4 Kind Of Girl 7:42
5 Sticks And Stones 9:54
6 I Can't Make Up My Mind 12:50
7 Summertime 15:29
8 Woman 17:44
9 I Got My Mojo Working 20:09
10 Road Runner 23:44
11 You Really Got A Hold On Me 25:50
12 Nothing's Changed 29:31
13 You Make Me Feel Good 32:03
14 She's Not There 34:47
15 Don't Go Away 37:12
16 How We Were Before 39:49
17 Tell Her No 41:56
18 Whenever You're Ready 44:05
19 Just Out Of Reach 46:54
20 Remember You 49:03
21 Indication 51:02
22 She Does Everything For Me 54:03
23 Time Of The Season 56:19
24 I Love You 59:52

The Zombies ( St Albans city in Hertfordshire, England )

The Zombies are an English rock band formed in St Albans in 1961. Led by keyboardist/vocalist Rod Argent and lead vocalist Colin Blunstone, the group had their first British and American hit in 1964 with "She's Not There". In the US, two further singles—"Tell Her No" in 1965 and "Time of the Season" in 1968—were also successful.

Their 1968 album Odessey and Oracle was ranked number 100 on Rolling Stone's 2012 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and number 243 on Rolling Stone's 2020 list. The Zombies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.

The Zombies reunited for a few odd concerts from 1989 to 1997, but have been active full-time since 2004, releasing their most recent studio album, Different Game, in 2023. The band today consists of Blunstone and Argent (White and Grundy also show up for occasional concerts), but as of July 2024, Argent is no longer touring.
History
1961–1964
The Blacksmiths Arms public house in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where the Zombies first met

Three members of the band, Rod Argent, Paul Atkinson and Hugh Grundy, first came together to jam in 1961 in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Argent wanted to form a band and initially asked his elder cousin Jim Rodford to join as a bassist. At the time, Rodford was in a successful local band, the Bluetones, and so declined, but he offered to help Argent. Rodford would later join in 2004 when the band reformed. Brian Christie, a friend of Atkinson, was invited into the band. When Christie left the band in early 1962 to focus on education, he suggested Colin Blunstone and Paul Arnold from another band, The Hoaxes, to be added, with the latter to replace him as bassist. Blunstone and Arnold joined the other three to form the band in 1961 while all five members were at school.

Some sources state that Argent, Atkinson, and Grundy were at St Albans School, while Blunstone and Arnold were students at St Albans Boys' Grammar School. Both Blunstone and Grundy came from Hatfield and both sang in the choir there at St Etheldreda's Church. Argent was a boy chorister in St Albans Cathedral Choir. They held their original rehearsals at the Pioneer Club, then situated on Hatfield Road, using equipment lent to them by the Bluetones. They met outside the Blacksmiths Arms pub in St Albans before their first rehearsal and gained their initial reputation playing the Old Verulamians Rugby Club there.

Argent said, "We met outside a pub. We were too young to walk in the pub”. Blunstone added "I was literally in a corner singing to myself, doing a Ricky Nelson song, and Rod came over and said, 'That’s really good. I’ll tell you what. If you’ll be the lead singer, I’ll play keyboards'

In 1964, the band won a £250 cash prize in a beat-group competition organised by the Watford Borough Council and sponsored by the London Evening News. They signed a recording contract with Decca and recorded their first hit, "She's Not There". It was released in mid-1964 and peaked at No. 12 in the UK, becoming their only UK Top 40 hit. The tune began to catch on in the United States and eventually climbed to No. 2 in early December. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
1964–1967
The Zombies in 1966. L-R: Chris White, Colin Blunstone, Hugh Grundy, Paul Atkinson and Rod Argent.

Like many other British groups, the Zombies travelled to the United States to tour on the momentum of their hit single. Among their early US gigs were Murray the K's Christmas shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre, where the band played seven performances a day. On 12 January 1965, the band made their first in-person appearance on US television on the first episode of NBC's Hullabaloo and played "She's Not There" and their new single "Tell Her No" to a screaming, hysterical audience full of teenage girls.

In the UK, the Zombies' follow-up single to "She's Not There" was written by Chris White. "Leave Me Be" was unsuccessful in the UK and, as a result, was not issued as an A-side in the US. It did appear as the B side of their second US single, "Tell Her No". Penned by Rod Argent, "Tell Her No" became another big seller in 1965, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March. As the band's third UK single, "Tell Her No" failed to make the Top 40, peaking at No. 42. Subsequent singles - "She's Coming Home", "I Want You Back Again", "Whenever You're Ready", "Is This the Dream", "Just Out of Reach" (recorded for the soundtrack of the film Bunny Lake is Missing), "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, which led to a series of concerts in 1967). A song by the Zombies released only as a B-side (to "Whenever You're Ready") in both the US and UK in 1965, "I Love You", subsequently became a sizeable hit.