July 5, 2024      —–     Chart #254

Hello Music Friends,

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. We’re staying in the 60’s today. “Time of the Season” is a song by the British rock band the Zombies, featured on their 1968 album Odessey and Oracle. It was written by keyboard player Rod Argent and recorded at Abbey Road Studios (then known as EMI Studios) in September 1967. Over a year after its original release, the track became a surprise hit in the United States, rising to number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Cashbox chart. It has become one of the Zombies’ most popular and recognizable songs, and an iconic hit of 1960s psychedelia.

The Zombies are an English rock band formed in St Albans in 1961. Led by keyboardist/vocalist Rod Argent and 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.

In 1964 the band won a £250 cash prize in a beat-group competition organized 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 number 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 number 2 in early December. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.

The Zombies at their 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction:  https://youtu.be/Ks1agImDmAk?si=0Oc82l8ucub9TZHj 

There is lots of fun history about this band, too much to post today, but here is one fun fact for you. The band broke up in 1968. After that time, the original line-up declined to regroup for concerts following the belated American success of “Time of the Season”. In turn, various concocted bands tried to capitalize on the success and falsely toured under the band’s name. In a scheme organized by Delta Promotions, an agency that also created fake touring versions of The Animals and The Archies, two fake Zombie line-ups were touring simultaneously in 1969, one hailing from Texas, the other from Michigan. The Texas group featured bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard, soon to be members of ZZ Top. Another group toured in 1988, going so far as to not only trademark the group’s name (the real band had let it lapse) but also recruit a bass guitarist named Ronald Hugh Grundy, claiming that original drummer Hugh Grundy had switched instruments.

Enjoy this song and try playing it on acoustic guitar. Takes a little imagination, but you can do it!

Keep Rockin’,

Stan Bradshaw