It’s a safe bet that many rock fans—even those with a penchant for ’60s music—know of the Zombies only via their three Top 5 hits: “She’s Not There” (1964), “Tell Her No” (1965) and “Time of the Season” (1969). But as a recently launched reissue series makes clear, this British Invasion group had much more to offer than those tunes. Zombies founder and keyboardist Rod Argent and bassist Chris White were gifted composers who drew on R&B and jazz and displayed a strong sense of melody, and Colin Blunstone, a sublime, breathy lead singer who sounded like no one else, added immeasurably to the mix.

While previous compilations and reissues have tapped digital transfers made in the 1990s, the new 2026 ones all employ audio that has been remastered from the original tapes. All of them feature the original mono versions and all come with incisive new liner notes.

The first of these CDs, the 17-track Begin Here, offers the U.K. version of the group’s 1965 debut album, which includes Argent’s “She’s Not There.” Also on the program are three tracks that appeared only on the American LP, among them his “Tell Her No,” which he says was influenced by Burt Bacharach’s jazz chords. Both those songs are terrific, and they’re not the only standouts in the set, which the Zombies recorded in just three days. Blunstone’s largely a cappella reading of Argent’s “The Way I Feel Inside” shows off his vocal prowess, as does “I Remember When I Loved Her,” an exquisite ballad, also by Argent, whose organ work shines on his upbeat “What More Can I Do.”

Still, this is an embryonic effort. With more than half a dozen covers, including likable readings of R&B, soul and Motown classics such as Smokey Robinson’s “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” and Sam Cooke’s “Bring It on Home to Me,” it doesn’t fully showcase the band’s songwriting potential. Nor does it even hint at the musical innovation and level of sophistication that would burst forth on the group’s second official album, Odessey and Oracle. (The man who painted the cover art misspelled Odyssey,” and the band opted not to fix his mistake.)

That self-produced 1968 album also figures in the current reissue series. The record, for which Argent and White wrote all of the material, is the one where the Zombies stopped looking for hits and simply followed their own artistic impulses—reportedly because they’d become disillusioned with the business and had already decided to call it quits. Ironically, Odessey and Oracle nevertheless wound up producing their biggest hit, Argent’s great “Time of the Season.” But that number took a long time to score, and the LP barely dented the charts at the time of its release. Now, however, it is widely and justifiably recognized as masterpiece of psychedelia-influenced baroque rock.

The album’s quirky lyrics cover wide turf. One offers a letter to a jailed girlfriend (“Care of Cell 44”), one describes a romantic attraction (“I Want Her She Wants Me”), one concerns the First World War (“Butcher’s Tale [Western Front 1914]” ), and one appears to describe a hippie be-in (“Hung Up on a Dream”).

The album manages to showcase a major artistic leap while retaining abundant evidence of the group’s early R&B and Motown influences. (Speaking of Motown, incidentally, the liner notes state that a misheard line in the Miracles’ “Tracks of My Tears” inspired the title lyric for “Time of the Season.”)

The name of another album in the reissue series, the just-released Continue Here, plays off that of the debut LP because it collects material that the group’s members believe could have constituted a sophomore LP. Most, if not all, of these 19 tracks—which include singles, B-sides, songs for a movie score and numbers omitted from Begin Here—have popped up over the years in compilations, but Continue Here is being touted as the first time they have been featured together as “the album that should have been.” According to a publicist, the set is “meant to tell the story of how the Zombies developed from an R&B cover band to creating a psych-pop masterpiece [Odessey and Oracle].”

It does that, and with consistently rhythmic, catchy material. White’s “You Make Me Feel Good” (the flip side of “She’s Not There”) and Argent’s Beatlesque ballad, “I Must Move,” are just two of the many criminally overlooked gems on this album.

One disappointment: with playing times ranging from only about 35 to 47 minutes, all three CDs could have fit in a wealth of bonus tracks. Alternate takes and demos of several of the songs on Begin Here and Odessey and Oracle could have been added to those albums, for example. Moreover, the latter disc could have been augmented with the notably different genuine stereo versions that exist for all but one of that album’s tracks. True, the Zombies originally mixed the LP in mono and Blunstone reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with the hurriedly prepared stereo edition. Still, it would have made a nice bonus for those who want to hear the instruments and vocals dispersed across two channels.

Related: Our interview with Colin Blunstone

But these are quibbles. All three of these reissues are well worth owning. The Zombies never got the appreciation they deserved, and these albums prove it.

The reissues are available here.