THE ZOMBIES
The Zombies are an English rock band, formed in 1961 in St Albans and led by Rod Argent (piano, organ and vocals) and Colin Blunstone (vocals). The group scored British and American hits in 1964 with "She's Not There". In the US two further singles, "Tell Her No" in 1965 and "Time of the Season" in 1969, were also successful. Their 1968 album, Odessey and Oracle is ranked number 100 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. (More from Wikipedia)
Phil and the Frantics is best known for a song called "I Must Run", which was a local hit single in their native Arizona; the song is said to have been adapted rather openly from the flip side of the Zombies' fourth single, "She's Coming Home" b/w "I Must Move" (the follow-up to one of their biggest hits "Tell Her No"). I was unfamiliar with the Zombies song but have played it recently, and I don't really see the resemblance; if the song titles weren't so similar, it might have slipped through the cracks altogether. In any case, "I Must Run" is a superior recording to "I Must Move", and I am not the only one who thinks so; my view is shared by that of Ugly Things magazine.
However, every source that I have examined mentions the adaptation, so I guess it is there. For instance, it is mentioned in the tongue-in-cheek liner notes on Pebbles, Volume 2 (LP) where I first encountered "I Must Run". The author of the liner notes is listed as "A. Seltzer", and I think they are supposed to be satirically in the style of legendary rock critic Lester Bangs, though I am not positive of that. (Philip Seymour Hoffman played Bangs in the 2000 film Almost Famous). About this song, "Seltzer" writes: "And if you just moved to Dacron from some dumb place like Phoenix, Arizona, take heart cuz they've included YOUR favorite band, Phil & the Frantics with their famed plagiarism of the Zombies 'I Must Run'. I'll bet they did when the real songwriters came after 'em for taking credit for this song! Real sleaze, but a shoo-in for punk posterity."
For what it's worth, the resemblance between "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison and "He's So Fine" by the Chiffons is much clearer to these ears than is the case with "I Must Run" by Phil and the Frantics and "I Must Move" by the Zombies.
Plagiarizing music is not so straightforward to spot as, say, plagiarizing a term paper. There were any number of bands aping the Beatles and the Byrds and the Zombies during the 1960's; Bob Dylan for instance started out as a Woody Guthrie wannabe after all.
(August 2012)
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The Skywalkers learned about the 1960's music scene through early Pink Floyd albums and the Soft Machine, and no doubt the rich musical heritage in their home country. Their musical vision was to fuse garage and psychedelic music together, but always with a pop sensibility; as they put it in the interview: "We like psychedelic music but it has to have a pop character as well. Think of bands like the Electric Prunes, Love and Strawberry Alarm Clock, Tomorrow. Our favorite years in music are 1966 and 1967, where garage and psychedelic music just came together. Our favourite subgenre is Baroque Pop with artists like Billy Nicholls, Sagittarius, the Millennium and of course the Zombies." I would add to that list a rather under-appreciated American band called the Left Banke, who had a lovely hit song in 1967, "Walk Away Renee".
The charming liner notes are entitled "The Skywalkers ABC", and it still took me a while to realize that they were in alphabetical order. It wasn't just a list of "thank you's" either; they included some commentary with their influences. They include a lot of familiar bands and artists (at least to me) – Brian Wilson ("for his amazing ballads"), the Electric Prunes ("they got us to the world on time"), Syd Barrett ("for leading us into the sixties"), the Zombies ("the greatest ever"), Q65 ("and other Dutch freakbeat groups") – but others that I don't know at all, like Ola & the Janglers and Jan Breimer. Their "X" item was "Careful with that X, Eugene!", a take-off on an early Pink Floyd hit, "Careful with that Axe, Eugene". But the list started with Aliens ("what's taking them so long?") and also includes the Monkey ("[Jacco Gardner]'s favorite dance move"), the Twist ("[Hugo van de Poel]'s favorite dance move"), their photographer Luuk Muller ("for making us look good"), their organ brand Philicorda ("the greatest instrument around"), the Universe ("the greatest place around"), and "You, for buying this record".
(January 2013)
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Vanilla Fudge had a well developed formula of covering a variety of hit songs in a slowed down, psychedelicized manner; their debut album, Vanilla Fudge (1967) was filled with them: the Supremes hit "You Keep Me Hanging On" (which is what got them signed in the first place to the Atlantic Records affiliate, Atco Records); two Beatles songs, "Ticket to Ride" and "Eleanor Rigby"; an Impressions classic "People Get Ready"; the Zombies song "She's Not There"; and Sonny and Cher's "Bang Bang".
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Homer started out as a cover band; Galen Niles recalls that their varied playlist included the Zombies' “She's Not There”, Deep Purple's “Hush”, and Wilson Pickett's “Land of 1,000 Dances”.
(April 2014)
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Originally "Jesus music" or "Jesus rock" was not recorded but only sung among people at a gathering. Wikipedia mentions Larry Norman as a pioneer of CCM with his 1969 debut solo album Upon this Rock. Norman had previously been the lead singer and chief songwriter for a band called People! who had a 1968 hit with the Zombies song "I Love You". A second album listed by Wikipedia is the 1970 release, Mylon – We Believe by Mylon LeFevre and Broken Heart; Joe South appears as a guest musician.
(July 2014)
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Phil and the Frantics are best known for their evident plagiarism of a Zombies song for their minor hit "I Must Run", though to these ears, it isn't nearly as obvious as everyone else seems to think. See what you think of this song on YouTube (audio only) as taken from the LP where I first heard the song, Pebbles, Volume 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLK9wV-NfzQ .
(August 2014)
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Rod Argent was the keyboard player for the Zombies; they were an English rock band but somehow stood apart from most of the other British Invasion bands. After the Zombies broke up, he formed the band Argent in 1969. They are best known for their million-selling song "Hold Your Head Up", which was included on their third album All Together Now (1972).
(November 2014)
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This is the notorious, supposed ripoff by Phil and the Frantics of a Zombies B-side called "I Must Run":
(August 2015)
