August 23, 2025 • 10 mins
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees and “British Invasion” pioneers, The Zombies, today
announce the release of Odessey & Oracle Mono Remastered on September 26th. The album, the
first of four definitive physical reissues from their catalog, includes the classic songs “Time Of
The Season,” “Care of Cell 44,” and “This Will Be Our Year” and is a regular entry in “Best
Albums of All Time” lists in publications like Rolling Stone, NME, and Mojo Magazine. The
release, which coincides with The Zombies’ documentary, Hung Up On A Dream, marks the first
time the band's original mono mix, remastered from studio tapes, has appeared on LP since the
record's British issue in 1968, presenting the album as they originally intended it to be heard.
Pre-order the album on all formats here.
Recorded primarily at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios in 1967, Odessey & Oracle was
self-produced in Mono on a shoestring budget by primary songwriters Rod Argent (keyboards/
vocals) and Chris White (bass/vocals). Under last-minute pressure from their record label, the
album was hastily remixed in the newly emerging Stereo format, which sacrificed key elements
from the Mono recording, most notably the beloved horn parts in “This Will Be Our Year”.The band today also share the first track off the album, the mono remastered version of “This
Will Be Our Year”, with the horn parts restored. Although never released as a single, this deep
cut has found a new life thanks to prominent uses in TV and film, including memorable scenes in
Mad Men, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Schitt's Creek, and covers by artists like Foo
Fighters, OK Go and Susanna Hoffs. Its positive and uplifting message has been embraced by
couples as a popular wedding song, and become a staple of New Year’s playlists. Listen here.
The album also includes new liner notes from famed writer, David Fricke. Read an excerpt
below:
Odessey and Oracle is very much of and about its time: songs of youth and love – the
lucky strike of attraction ("I Want Her She Wants Me"); flickering memories held tight
("Brief Candles"); longing that defies the odds ("Maybe After He's Gone") – from pop's
high season of amour, a crowded nirvana of landmark debuts (Pink Floyd, the Doors, the
Jimi Hendrix Experience) and definitive accounts of Britain's psychedelic bloom…This
album was also built to stand the test of time, at the 11th hour by a band with everything
to prove. "We were always dissatisfied with the production of our records," Argent said in
1971 of the Zombies' Decca work. "We wanted to produce an album before we broke up
to satisfy ourselves." The result was a fearlessness that still rings fresh, that invention
driven by the Zombies' stringent resources and their confidence in the songs. Most of "A
Rose for Emily" is simply piano and vocal, an Argent-Blunstone duet with streaks of
choral sigh.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.
announce the release of Odessey & Oracle Mono Remastered on September 26th. The album, the
first of four definitive physical reissues from their catalog, includes the classic songs “Time Of
The Season,” “Care of Cell 44,” and “This Will Be Our Year” and is a regular entry in “Best
Albums of All Time” lists in publications like Rolling Stone, NME, and Mojo Magazine. The
release, which coincides with The Zombies’ documentary, Hung Up On A Dream, marks the first
time the band's original mono mix, remastered from studio tapes, has appeared on LP since the
record's British issue in 1968, presenting the album as they originally intended it to be heard.
Pre-order the album on all formats here.
Recorded primarily at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios in 1967, Odessey & Oracle was
self-produced in Mono on a shoestring budget by primary songwriters Rod Argent (keyboards/
vocals) and Chris White (bass/vocals). Under last-minute pressure from their record label, the
album was hastily remixed in the newly emerging Stereo format, which sacrificed key elements
from the Mono recording, most notably the beloved horn parts in “This Will Be Our Year”.The band today also share the first track off the album, the mono remastered version of “This
Will Be Our Year”, with the horn parts restored. Although never released as a single, this deep
cut has found a new life thanks to prominent uses in TV and film, including memorable scenes in
Mad Men, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Schitt's Creek, and covers by artists like Foo
Fighters, OK Go and Susanna Hoffs. Its positive and uplifting message has been embraced by
couples as a popular wedding song, and become a staple of New Year’s playlists. Listen here.
The album also includes new liner notes from famed writer, David Fricke. Read an excerpt
below:
Odessey and Oracle is very much of and about its time: songs of youth and love – the
lucky strike of attraction ("I Want Her She Wants Me"); flickering memories held tight
("Brief Candles"); longing that defies the odds ("Maybe After He's Gone") – from pop's
high season of amour, a crowded nirvana of landmark debuts (Pink Floyd, the Doors, the
Jimi Hendrix Experience) and definitive accounts of Britain's psychedelic bloom…This
album was also built to stand the test of time, at the 11th hour by a band with everything
to prove. "We were always dissatisfied with the production of our records," Argent said in
1971 of the Zombies' Decca work. "We wanted to produce an album before we broke up
to satisfy ourselves." The result was a fearlessness that still rings fresh, that invention
driven by the Zombies' stringent resources and their confidence in the songs. Most of "A
Rose for Emily" is simply piano and vocal, an Argent-Blunstone duet with streaks of
choral sigh.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Colin Man, I gotta tell you this, this has got
to be a major moment in music history because everything
I'm reading about listeners and what they're doing with music
these days, they're bringing songs from the past forward and
it's being featured on Billboard Magazine's top Top of the Charts.
I mean, people really are calling music from the past
their present day sound.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, that's good news for us because we've got a
new album coming out, so let's hope that we fit
in with that, with that movement, with what's happening.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You guys have always been in touch with fans of music.
What is it that that that really puts you into
the heartbeat? Is it because because I saw that documentary
and realize, oh my god, you're one of us, You're
you're you guys are that band that we all wanted
to become.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, it's quite possibly true because we would just uh,
teenage guys, see somehow we want a local beat competition,
which got us a contract with Decca. I think one
single and not one single went to number one in
cash books in America. It all happens so fast. We
(01:03):
were just teenage kids, like so many people who were
in bands today. And of course we're in bands in
the sixties, but the dream happened for us, and it
happened so fast that I do sometimes think we weren't
really aware of what was going on. But I can
remember thinking at the time, this is not going to
change me. So when you say we are one of
(01:25):
one of you guys, we really are nothing changed. Except
you know, we made records and some of them sold,
and I have to say some of them didn't sell
as well. But you know, the zombies always stayed the same.
We're just ordinary young guys who got a little bit older,
I have to admit over the years, but we stayed
(01:46):
just guys from the country who loved to play music.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, but do you feel older? Only because I believe
that we are the age that we think we are.
In other words, I'm sixty three, but inside I'm still
that seventeen year old punk kid.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I know, to a large extent it's true with me
as well, certainly, you know, mentally and emotionally, I feel
much much younger. It's only when I remember last night
trying to get into a taxi and my knees wouldn't work,
probably nothing would work. Probably that it reminded me that
I'm not seventeen any longer. But there are only they
(02:22):
are very rare moments that that happened generally, you know,
I feel, you know, in my twenties and my thirties,
I really do. And I think music keeps you young.
Whether you're playing music or whether you're listening to music,
music does keep you young.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I'm sure what was it like to step into that
studio and remaster a mono album, because I mean, I
grew up listening to mono albums. When when it finally
went stereo, it was like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I know, I know, well this odest and Oraca was
recording a very strange time. It was when stereo was
just becoming prevalent, and so we actually recorded this album
in mono, and the record company then said, well, we
need a stereo album, and so the album that was
released had a sort of a simulated stereo. It's not
(03:11):
true stereo. So for the first time with the release
of Odyssey and Oracles, it's going to be released around
the world on the twenty sixth of September on our
record label. It's going to be released on Beachwood Park Records,
which is the Zombies label, so we we're in the
big time now, you know. And for the first time
(03:31):
I was a joke. For the first time, people will
hear this album in the way that it was intended
to be heard. It's only taken what sixty years for
this to happen. This is how we recorded it, and
you're going to hear it for the first time from
the twenty sixth of September as this album's released.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And it's got to be to me, it's got to
be heard on an album because every generation has really
jumped back into buying turntables and I want that experience.
I want to hear that scratching of the needle, you know,
on the on the front side of that album when
you started, and I want to be able to hear
the full sound.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I know, I agree with you completely. I love to
hear albums, you know, maybe on a not a brand
new needle, I don't know. There's just something about listening
to music as as an LP like we used to.
And of course you can read the sleeve nights and say,
you know who's playing it, so who's doing that? And
(04:29):
then once you've read it all the way through, you
can read it again, and then you find more details
about where was it recorded, who was the engineer.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's the whole story of the album in the sleeve.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Night Please do not move. There's more with Colin Blunstone
from The Zombies coming up next. He thanks for coming
back to my conversation with Colin Blunstone from the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame band The Zombies. So, now,
when you remaster a song like Time of the Season,
being a member of the Zombies, when you're in that
studio listening to because the best place to listen to
(05:01):
music is in the studio, did you bump into any
old ghosts or zombies?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I know I No, I didn't, And you know I
must tell you that I wasn't personally involved in a
lot of the re record. You know, the remastering of
this act. It was remastered in America when I was
in England. So I'll tell you a little secret. I
haven't actually heard the remastered mono version of Artissey an Oracle.
(05:31):
I haven't heard it yet. So like everyone else, I'm
going to be sitting there waiting to be really surprised
and thrilled and thrilled when I hear this for the
first time as it was recorded and as it was
meant to be heard.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Please do me a favor and put that on video,
because I mean, you guys are gonna there's no way
in hell that this is going to be your last documentary,
and I would love to see something like that happen
to see your reaction.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, that would be great. Actually, I'm sure that I'm
gonna be amazed at some of the things that will
come through in this version that probably have completely forgotten about.
So yeah, we should try and film it. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
The horn section in the music, I mean, it just
it just blows me away, because I mean when you
remaster something like that and you give the horn has
disappeared from today's music unless it's coming through a digital device.
But in this music, it's like, oh my god, it's
so present.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I mean I think it's really sad
that albums like Odyssey an Oracle were never heard as
they were meant to be heard. I think it's going
to surprise a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
A lot of magazines have listed this album throughout the
years as they're all time favorite. Does that mean anything
to the singer songwriter inside of you or is it
one of those where you go, keep moving forward, keep
moving forward.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Well, it's a little bit of both. Yeah, of course,
it's wonderful to get acknowledgment and realize that people have
noticed and do realize the work that's gone into it,
and do appreciate what you've done. I know Rolling Stone
named our oddisscen Oracle by The Zombies as the eightieth
(07:12):
best album ever recorded, and there's many other publications that
have named odiscen Oracle as an important album, And of
course it energizes us for what we're doing now. But
all of us in the band, whether we're working together
or whether we're working separately, have always concentrated on the future,
and we've always wanted to know what's next, so we
(07:33):
don't dwell too much on the past. But I'm not
going to miss that the fact that Rolling Stone names
Odistce and Oracle as one of the best albums of
all time. Of course, I'll enjoy that wonderful moment and
use that to propel my thoughts and my projects into
the future.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
One of the things I've always loved about the Zombies
and seeing the videos. Have you guys played live and
even on the documentary, and that is is that when
you're on that stage, the way you look at ea
each other, it's like, can you believe this is happening?
I mean, you really do have that connection and vibration
when you're performing live.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well either, Definitely, there's a connection between the band when
we're performing like it's a very special connection. And it
fascinates me because the band was put together almost entirely
by chance. Whereas some baths Well auditioned hundreds of people
before they're accepting a new member, the Zongs came together
by chance. It was just so fortunate that we work
(08:29):
so well off of one another. So yeah, of course
we were always aware of what the other person was
playing when we're playing, because it's a very special sound
when the zombies play out. I always say, you can
like the zombies or you can not like the zombies,
but it's a unique sound, and I think it's a
very special sound.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, because you know what, you guys were right there
in the center of that British invasion. I mean you
had the Beatles and the rolling Stones, but you guys
were coming out there with your own sound. You owned
your own world.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Well we did. I mean, what a wonderful, exciting time
to be playing in your first band, to be part
of the first wave of the British Nasion, behind the
really big super bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
And then you know, you realize if you roll off
nine or ten bands, you'll probably come to this business thing. Wow,
(09:23):
that's us. We were there, We were seeing this great
phenomenon at first hand. What a wonderful experience.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Well, where can people go to find out more about you,
Colin and everything that you guys are involved in.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Well, you know, I always say if you google the Zongers,
are you google Colin Blunstone, you'll get to us. But
I think the song is dot net. I am Colin Blunstone.
Dot Net might be a bit of a shortcut, but
you know you can't miss us if you want to
find us on the internet where there. I promise you.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Please come back to this show anytime in the future.
The door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed having a
chat and thanks for the impression. That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Okay, okay, we'll do all the very best.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Thank you.
Colin Man, I gotta tell you this, this has got
to be a major moment in music history because everything
I'm reading about listeners and what they're doing with music
these days, they're bringing songs from the past forward and
it's being featured on Billboard Magazine's top Top of the Charts.
I mean, people really are calling music from the past
their present day sound.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, that's good news for us because we've got a
new album coming out, so let's hope that we fit
in with that, with that movement, with what's happening.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You guys have always been in touch with fans of music.
What is it that that that really puts you into
the heartbeat? Is it because because I saw that documentary
and realize, oh my god, you're one of us, You're
you're you guys are that band that we all wanted
to become.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, it's quite possibly true because we would just uh,
teenage guys, see somehow we want a local beat competition,
which got us a contract with Decca. I think one
single and not one single went to number one in
cash books in America. It all happens so fast. We
(01:03):
were just teenage kids, like so many people who were
in bands today. And of course we're in bands in
the sixties, but the dream happened for us, and it
happened so fast that I do sometimes think we weren't
really aware of what was going on. But I can
remember thinking at the time, this is not going to
change me. So when you say we are one of
(01:25):
one of you guys, we really are nothing changed. Except
you know, we made records and some of them sold,
and I have to say some of them didn't sell
as well. But you know, the zombies always stayed the same.
We're just ordinary young guys who got a little bit older,
I have to admit over the years, but we stayed
(01:46):
just guys from the country who loved to play music.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, but do you feel older? Only because I believe
that we are the age that we think we are.
In other words, I'm sixty three, but inside I'm still
that seventeen year old punk kid.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I know, to a large extent it's true with me
as well, certainly, you know, mentally and emotionally, I feel
much much younger. It's only when I remember last night
trying to get into a taxi and my knees wouldn't work,
probably nothing would work. Probably that it reminded me that
I'm not seventeen any longer. But there are only they
(02:22):
are very rare moments that that happened generally, you know,
I feel, you know, in my twenties and my thirties,
I really do. And I think music keeps you young.
Whether you're playing music or whether you're listening to music,
music does keep you young.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I'm sure what was it like to step into that
studio and remaster a mono album, because I mean, I
grew up listening to mono albums. When when it finally
went stereo, it was like, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I know, I know, well this odest and Oraca was
recording a very strange time. It was when stereo was
just becoming prevalent, and so we actually recorded this album
in mono, and the record company then said, well, we
need a stereo album, and so the album that was
released had a sort of a simulated stereo. It's not
(03:11):
true stereo. So for the first time with the release
of Odyssey and Oracles, it's going to be released around
the world on the twenty sixth of September on our
record label. It's going to be released on Beachwood Park Records,
which is the Zombies label, so we we're in the
big time now, you know. And for the first time
(03:31):
I was a joke. For the first time, people will
hear this album in the way that it was intended
to be heard. It's only taken what sixty years for
this to happen. This is how we recorded it, and
you're going to hear it for the first time from
the twenty sixth of September as this album's released.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And it's got to be to me, it's got to
be heard on an album because every generation has really
jumped back into buying turntables and I want that experience.
I want to hear that scratching of the needle, you know,
on the on the front side of that album when
you started, and I want to be able to hear
the full sound.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I know, I agree with you completely. I love to
hear albums, you know, maybe on a not a brand
new needle, I don't know. There's just something about listening
to music as as an LP like we used to.
And of course you can read the sleeve nights and say,
you know who's playing it, so who's doing that? And
(04:29):
then once you've read it all the way through, you
can read it again, and then you find more details
about where was it recorded, who was the engineer.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's the whole story of the album in the sleeve.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Night Please do not move. There's more with Colin Blunstone
from The Zombies coming up next. He thanks for coming
back to my conversation with Colin Blunstone from the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame band The Zombies. So, now,
when you remaster a song like Time of the Season,
being a member of the Zombies, when you're in that
studio listening to because the best place to listen to
(05:01):
music is in the studio, did you bump into any
old ghosts or zombies?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I know I No, I didn't, And you know I
must tell you that I wasn't personally involved in a
lot of the re record. You know, the remastering of
this act. It was remastered in America when I was
in England. So I'll tell you a little secret. I
haven't actually heard the remastered mono version of Artissey an Oracle.
(05:31):
I haven't heard it yet. So like everyone else, I'm
going to be sitting there waiting to be really surprised
and thrilled and thrilled when I hear this for the
first time as it was recorded and as it was
meant to be heard.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Please do me a favor and put that on video,
because I mean, you guys are gonna there's no way
in hell that this is going to be your last documentary,
and I would love to see something like that happen
to see your reaction.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, that would be great. Actually, I'm sure that I'm
gonna be amazed at some of the things that will
come through in this version that probably have completely forgotten about.
So yeah, we should try and film it. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
The horn section in the music, I mean, it just
it just blows me away, because I mean when you
remaster something like that and you give the horn has
disappeared from today's music unless it's coming through a digital device.
But in this music, it's like, oh my god, it's
so present.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I mean I think it's really sad
that albums like Odyssey an Oracle were never heard as
they were meant to be heard. I think it's going
to surprise a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
A lot of magazines have listed this album throughout the
years as they're all time favorite. Does that mean anything
to the singer songwriter inside of you or is it
one of those where you go, keep moving forward, keep
moving forward.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Well, it's a little bit of both. Yeah, of course,
it's wonderful to get acknowledgment and realize that people have
noticed and do realize the work that's gone into it,
and do appreciate what you've done. I know Rolling Stone
named our oddisscen Oracle by The Zombies as the eightieth
(07:12):
best album ever recorded, and there's many other publications that
have named odiscen Oracle as an important album, And of
course it energizes us for what we're doing now. But
all of us in the band, whether we're working together
or whether we're working separately, have always concentrated on the future,
and we've always wanted to know what's next, so we
(07:33):
don't dwell too much on the past. But I'm not
going to miss that the fact that Rolling Stone names
Odistce and Oracle as one of the best albums of
all time. Of course, I'll enjoy that wonderful moment and
use that to propel my thoughts and my projects into
the future.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
One of the things I've always loved about the Zombies
and seeing the videos. Have you guys played live and
even on the documentary, and that is is that when
you're on that stage, the way you look at ea
each other, it's like, can you believe this is happening?
I mean, you really do have that connection and vibration
when you're performing live.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well either, Definitely, there's a connection between the band when
we're performing like it's a very special connection. And it
fascinates me because the band was put together almost entirely
by chance. Whereas some baths Well auditioned hundreds of people
before they're accepting a new member, the Zongs came together
by chance. It was just so fortunate that we work
(08:29):
so well off of one another. So yeah, of course
we were always aware of what the other person was
playing when we're playing, because it's a very special sound
when the zombies play out. I always say, you can
like the zombies or you can not like the zombies,
but it's a unique sound, and I think it's a
very special sound.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, because you know what, you guys were right there
in the center of that British invasion. I mean you
had the Beatles and the rolling Stones, but you guys
were coming out there with your own sound. You owned
your own world.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Well we did. I mean, what a wonderful, exciting time
to be playing in your first band, to be part
of the first wave of the British Nasion, behind the
really big super bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
And then you know, you realize if you roll off
nine or ten bands, you'll probably come to this business thing. Wow,
(09:23):
that's us. We were there, We were seeing this great
phenomenon at first hand. What a wonderful experience.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Well, where can people go to find out more about you,
Colin and everything that you guys are involved in.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Well, you know, I always say if you google the Zongers,
are you google Colin Blunstone, you'll get to us. But
I think the song is dot net. I am Colin Blunstone.
Dot Net might be a bit of a shortcut, but
you know you can't miss us if you want to
find us on the internet where there. I promise you.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Please come back to this show anytime in the future.
The door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed having a
chat and thanks for the impression. That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Okay, okay, we'll do all the very best.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Thank you.
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