The Guardian has done one of its 'How we made...' features on the Zombies' 1968 single Time of the Season. It wasn't a hit in the UK, but reached number 3 in the US over a year after it was released. By then the band had split so they weren't able to cash in on this success.
Here the band's singer, Colin Blunstone, recalls the recording of the song:
Rod always has an overview of his songs in his head – he can hear the drum track, what the bass should be playing and what the lead vocal should be doing. He's extremely good at phrasing, so he was in the control room saying: "No, this phrase should be on the beat but the next phrase should be pushed..." Meanwhile, all the time I'm watching the big hand creeping towards five o'clock.
Things got a little bit heated. I was saying, "If you're so bloody good, you come in here and sing it," and he said, "You're the bloody lead singer, you stand in there until you get it right!" The language was probably richer than that. It makes me smile now to think I was breaking off from saying the most terrible things to Rod to sing these angelic lines: “It’s the time of the season for loving..."
You can read too about the fake Zombies who toured America because the real ones were no more.
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