Time of the Season
| "Time of the Season" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Time of the Season cover.jpg | ||||
| Single by the Zombies | ||||
| from the album Odessey and Oracle | ||||
| B-side | ||||
| Released | March 1968 | |||
| Recorded | August 1967 | |||
| Studio | Abbey Road, London | |||
| Genre | Psychedelic pop | |||
| Length |
| |||
| Label | CBS | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Rod Argent | |||
| Producer(s) | The Zombies | |||
| The Zombies singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Time of the Season" is a song by the British rock band the Zombies, featured on their 1968 album Odessey and Oracle. It was written by keyboard player Rod Argent and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in August 1967. Over a year after its original release, the track became a surprise hit in the United States, rising to number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Cashbox chart. It has become one of the Zombies' most popular and recognizable songs, and an iconic hit of 1960s psychedelia that continues to enjoy frequent airplay on classic rock and oldies radio.
Song information
Several other songs from Odessey and Oracle were released as singles prior to "Time of the Season". Columbia Records supported the album and its singles at the urging of new A&R representative Al Kooper. One of the singles issued on Columbia's Date label was the noncommercial-sounding "Butcher's Tale", which Columbia thought might catch on as an antiwar statement, at the time a popular trend. "Time of the Season" was released only at Kooper's urging, initially coupled with its original UK B-side, "I'll Call You Mine", without success. After previous singles flopped, Date re-released "Time of the Season" backed with another UK flop single, "Friends of Mine", and it made its breakthrough in early 1969, over a year after the band split up. It reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in March,[3] topped the Cashbox chart,[4] and reached number one in Canada. It did not chart in the band's native Britain, despite being re-released twice, but it later found fame there with Rod Argent saying that it became "a classic in the UK, but it's never been a hit."[5] In mid-1969, it peaked at number two on the South African hit parade.
The song makes extensive use of call-and-response vocals (from singer Colin Blunstone) interwoven with fast-paced psychedelic keyboard improvisation.
In 1998, Big Beat Records released a CD reissue of Odessey and Oracle containing both the original stereo and monoaural versions of "Time of the Season". It also featured a newly remixed alternate version containing instrumental backing underneath the vocals during the entire chorus. These instrumental backings had been mixed out on the original 1968 stereo and mono versions to create a cappella vocal sections. The outro is also different, with a different organ solo featuring only one organ, instead of the two interleaved organs in the original mix.
Milwaukee's Third Coast Daily.com called the song "something of a counterculture anthem".[6]
In 2012, NME named the track the 35th-best song of the 1960s.[7]
Use in pop culture
"Time of the Season" is frequently used in pop culture to represent the era of its release. It is featured in the films 1969, Awakenings, A Walk on the Moon, and Riding the Bullet, all of which depict 1969, The Conjuring, which depicts 1971, and in All the Money in the World, which depicts 1973. The Zombies and "Time of the Season", as well as "She's Not There", are intensively used in Thomas Vinterberg's Dear Wendy (2006). The song was also featured in the South Park season 2 episode "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka" during a flashback to the Vietnam War and again during another Vietnam flashback in season 14 episode, "201".
Chart history
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Cover versions and samples
The song has been covered many times by other bands in recordings, including:
- In 1969, Thyme covered "Time of the Season" for A-Square records.[16]
- Argent released a live version from a 1974 concert on their 1976 compilation album The Argent Anthology - A Collection of Greatest Hits.
- Brent Bourgeois covered "Time of the Season" on his eponymous self-titled album in 1990.
- In 1981 Ippu-Do covered "Time of the Season" on their album "Radio Fantasy", They also released it in 7" & 12" singles formats
- In 1981, Pino D'Angio included an Italian version of "Time of the Season" with different lyrics titled "Signorina" on his album ...Balla!
- In 1992, Minneapolis band Trip Shakespeare covered the song on its EP Volt.[17]
- Michael Damian covered the song as the title track of his 1994 LP.
- In 1997, Kurt Elling and Cassandra Wilson for Elling's second album The Messenger. In the following year, the Scofflaws released an instrumental cover of the song on their fourth album Record of Conviction.
- In 1999, Big Blue Missile and Scott Weiland recorded the song for the soundtrack of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
- In 2001, it was recorded by Larry Goldings for Goldings' ninth album As One.
- In 2003, Ben Taylor recorded the song for his album Famous Among the Barns, later featured in the horror film Prom Night (2008).
- In 2005, the Guess Who released a cover of the song in the compilation album Let's Go.
- Dave Matthews Band had the song on the CD-DVD Weekend on the Rocks (2005) and Live Trax Vol. 9 (2007).
- In 2006, Sage Francis covered the song for his live album Dead Poet Live Album.
- On March 20, 2007, it was performed by Blake Lewis, the runner-up on the sixth season of American Idol, and included on later recordings.
- Also in 2007, it was recorded by Tommy Shaw (of Styx) and Jack Blades (of Night Ranger) for their album Influence.
- America remade "Time of the Season" for their 2012 release Back Pages a cover album.
- In 2017, it was recorded by Haley Reinhart for Reinharts' third album What's That Sound?.
- In 2018, Hawaiian ukulele artist Jake Shimabukuro covered the song on his album, The Greatest Day.[18]
It has been sampled many times, including in 2005 on the Necro album The Sexorcist in the opening track "Who's Ya Daddy?"; in 2009 by Melanie Fiona in her single "Give It to Me Right"; in 2011 on the ScHoolboy Q album Setbacks in the bonus track "Rolling Stone", which features the rap supergroup Black Hippy; in the outro on Miguel's "Don't Look Back" from the 2012 album Kaleidoscope Dream; Eminem's 2013 album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, in "Rhyme or Reason"; and on Insane Clown Posse’s 2019 album Fearless Fred Fury, in “Low”.
References
- ^ "The Zombies - Time Of The Season". Discogs. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
- ^ "The Zombies - Time Of The Season". Discogs. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2011). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research Inc. p. 1,002. ISBN 978-0898201888.
- ^ Hoffmann, Frank (1983). The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950-1981. Metuchen, NJ & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 661.
- ^ "Rod Argent of The Zombies : Songwriter Interviews". www.songfacts.com. Retrieved 2017-03-23.
- ^ "The Zombies return to Milwaukee, this time at the Pabst". Urban Milwaukee Dial. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
- ^ "100 Best Songs of the 1960s - #35 The Zombies - Time Of The Season - NME.COM". NME.COM. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
- ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 5923." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
- ^ "The Zombies – Time of the Season" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
- ^ "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved 5 September 2018.
- ^ "The Zombies Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
- ^ "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, March 29, 1969". Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
- ^ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.6104&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=mhe12pta2k83e08udtq66ot062
- ^ Musicoutfitters.com
- ^ "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 27, 1969". Archived from the original on January 25, 2019. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
- ^ "45 Discography for A-Square Records". Globaldogproductions.info. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
- ^ McIntosh, Gregory. "Trip Shakespeare, Volt". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2020-08-14.
- ^ Graff, Gary (August 20, 2018). "Jake Shimabukuro Delivers Ukulele Version of Ed Sheeran's 'Shape of You': Premiere". Billboard. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
