Year 7, Day 225

Good Morning! Today's song is She's Not There by The Zombies.

Photo by: Raph_PH

The Zombies is an English rock band and has a long history spanning from 1962 until now. Currently members include Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, Steve Rodford, Tom Toomey and Søren Koch. The original members formed the band while they were all still in school, and played with borrowed equipment. They originally named the band The Mustangs, but that was a common name, so it was changed to The Zombies. This was at a time before the whole world became obsessed with the walking dead phenomenon. After some member shuffling, the were signed once winning a competition, releasing their first single in 1964 which hit #2 on the charts. They got swept up with the British invasion and did touring around the States in the 60's while releasing more singles, none that achieved the same fame as the first one had. The release of albums with two different record companies were deemed failures, leading the band to split up in 1967. The label asked them to come back for another album the next year, but ultimately that was cancelled. The members all went their own ways into the music business (some front and center, and some behind the scenes) and refused to reunite when their music started gaining popularity. Because they wouldn't though, some fake bands toured under the name, effectively duping audiences and capitalizing on the actual band's hard work. Fun Fact: members of the fake band would go on to form ZZ Top... which kind of makes me hate them now. This continued for a couple decades, before the group did come back together for a new album in 1990 before disappearing again. Two of the members who had been around from the beginning (Colin Blunstone & Rod Argent) started doing music together in 2001, switching back to The Zombies name in 2004 with some new members. The new Zombies kept touring and the original members did get together for a 40th anniversary celebration which was followed by the release of some previous material made but never put out. A sixth album was released in 2015, and two years later the last surviving original members reunited for the 50th anniversary. As far as I can tell, a version of the band is still going strong now, but it's debatable which era is the true Zombies. It's an interesting question, so if you're curious listen to the catalogue and tell me what you think. 

Peace.