Time of the Season

"Time of the Season"
Single by The Zombies
from the album Odessey and Oracle
B-side "I'll Call You Mine" (UK)
Friends of Mine (US)[1][2]
Released March 1968 (1968-03)
Format 7-inch single
Recorded
Genre Psychedelic rock
Length 3:34
Label CBS
Songwriter(s) Rod Argent
Producer(s) The Zombies
The Zombies singles chronology
"Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)"
(1968)
"Time of the Season"
(1968)
"Imagine the Swan"
(1969)

"Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)"
(1968)
"Time of the Season"
(1968)
"Imagine the Swan"
(1969)

"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.

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 non-commercial-sounding "Butcher's Tale", which Columbia thought might catch on as an anti-war statement, at the time a popular trend. "Time of the Season" was only released at Kooper's urging, initially coupled with its original UK B-side, "I'll Call You Mine", without success. After previous singles flopped, Date rereleased "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 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March,[3] topped the Cashbox chart,[4] and reached number 1 in Canada. It did not chart in the band's native Britain, despite being rereleased twice, but it later found success 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 2 on the South African hit parade.

The song's characteristics include the voice of lead singer Colin Blunstone, the bass riff (which is similar to Ben E. King's hit "Stand By Me"), and Rod Argent's fast-paced psychedelic improvisation. The lyrics are an archetypical depiction of the emotions surrounding the Summer of Love. It is famous for such call-and-response verses as "What's your name? (What's your name?) / Who's your daddy? (Who's your daddy?) / He rich? (Is he rich like me?)" approximately 50 seconds into the track. Both stereo and mono original releases contain vocal responses.

In 1998, Big Beat Records released a CD reissue of Odessey and Oracle containing both the original stereo and mono 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.

Music critic Antonio Mendez called it one of the sublime songs on Odessey and Oracle.[6]

Milwaukee's Third Coast Daily.com called the song "something of a counterculture anthem".[7]

In 2012, NME named the track the 35th-best song of the 1960s.[8]

Usage in pop culture

"Time of the Season" is frequently used in pop culture to represent the era. In that sense, it is featured in the films 1969, Awakenings, A Walk on the Moon and Riding the Bullet, all of which depict 1969, and The Conjuring, which depicts 1971.

It has been used as incidental or scene-setting music during many episodes of many television programs and has been featured in several TV commercials, such as a 1999 Tampax ad set at the Woodstock Festival, a 2005 Fidelity Investments commercial, and a 2006 ad for Sprite. It was also used in the advertising campaigns of Nissan Tiida in Japan (2004), Greece (2007), Russia (2008) and Toyota RAV4 (2013) in Russia.

During the 2006 playoffs, the song was played in Shea Stadium as the home team New York Mets took the field.

Charts

Chart (1969) Peak
position
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[9] 1
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[10] 14
US Billboard Hot 100[11] 3

Cover versions and samples

The song has been covered many times by other bands in recordings, including:

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"; and on Eminem's 2013 album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, in "Rhyme or Reason".

References

  1. "The Zombies - Time Of The Season". Discogs. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  2. "The Zombies - Time Of The Season". Discogs. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  3. Whitburn, Joel (2011). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research Inc. p. 1,002. ISBN 0898201888.
  4. Hoffmann, Frank (1983). The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950-1981. Metuchen, NJ & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 661.
  5. "Rod Argent of The Zombies : Songwriter Interviews". www.songfacts.com. Retrieved 2017-03-23.
  6. Mendez, A. (2007). Guía del pop y el rock 80 y 90: Aloha poprock (2nd ed.). Editorial Visión Libros. p. 413. ISBN 9788498215694.
  7. "The Zombies return to Milwaukee, this time at the Pabst". Urban Milwaukee Dial. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  8. "100 Best Songs of the 1960s - #35 The Zombies - Time Of The Season - NME.COM". NME.COM. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  9. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 5923." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
  10. "Dutchcharts.nl – The Zombies – Time of the Season" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  11. "The Zombies – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for The Zombies.
  12. "45 Discography for A-Square Records". Globaldogproductions.info. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
Preceded by
"Dizzy" by Tommy Roe
RPM Canadian Singles Chart number-one single
March 31, 1969
Succeeded by
"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" by The 5th Dimension
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