Two different 5-LP vinyl boxed sets, with some overlapping material, each featuring early music by new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Zombies, are being released. First up is The Complete Studio Recordings, coming from Varese Sarabande on Feb. 22.
According to a press release, the package “includes two original U.S. albums: She’s Not There/Tell Her No and Odessey and Oracle; two important compilations: R.I.P., which was compiled by CBS Records and intended to be a followup to Odessey and Oracle, but then cancelled and never pieced together until now, with only a few tracks appearing on various collections and some originally released as singles; and I Love You, which was only released in the U.K. and Japan. Also included, a bespoke collection of rare singles and U.K.-only album tracks: Oddities & Extras. This LP includes new notes from producer/engineer Andrew Sandoval. There are new photos for the album cover and slipcover. This set comes on black 180gm LPs in a slipcase with the Zombies logo in a fancy foil stamp.”
The second box, due March 1 from Britain’s Demon Records, is titled In the Beginning. It’s described as such: “Limited five 180gm colored vinyl LP set. Hailing from the unlikely setting of St. Albans, the Zombies burst onto the U.K. and U.S. pop scene in August 1964 with the smash hit ‘She’s Not There,’ penned by keyboard player Rod Argent. Colin Blunstone’s breathy vocals set the record apart from the band’s contemporaries, and they followed it up with a second hit in ‘Tell Her No.’ Their debut album Begin Here was released on the Decca label in 1965. Despite issuing several more excellent singles, further chart success eluded the band, although Dusty Springfield covered Argent’s “If It Don’t Work Out” (which the band also recorded). The Zombies signed to CBS in 1967 and recorded a new album over the summer, producing the sessions at Abbey Road and Olympic Studios themselves.
“The result was the classic Odessey and Oracle, but by the time the album was released in April 1968, the band had split up. ‘Time of the Season’ went on to be a huge hit in the U.S. in 1969, selling over a million copies. This set is book-ended by the two ‘proper’ albums that the band recorded, Begin Here and Odessey and Oracle. In between, Early Days and Continue Here round up the band’s various A-sides, B-sides and EP tracks. The fourth LP faithfully recreates the R.I.P. album, an intended posthumous release of overdubbed outtakes that was shelved when new band Argent emerged from the ashes of the Zombies. The whole set is housed in a rigid slipcase. The inner sleeves include photos from designer Phil Smee’s extensive collection, while the albums are pressed on different colored vinyl.”
Related: Our interview with the Zombies’ Colin Blunstone
The Zombies are on tour. Tickets are available here.
3 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationWhy is St Albans an unlikely setting and what does it have to do with the review?
You’ll have to ask the record company. We just quoted from their press release.
This will be a great way for people to become acquainted (perhaps again) with the Zombies’ classic catalog. They’re no joke, and this is quality material that heretofore had to be culled from various sources. The ZOMBIE HEAVEN box set is long out of print now. Hopefully, the powers that be will put out another box set including the albums NEW WORLD, AS FAR AS I CAN SEE, OUT OF THE SHADOWS, BREATHE OUT-BREATHE IN, and STILL GOT THAT HUNGER. It’s all valid work in the Zombies’ legacy that shouldn’t be ignored.