Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Time of the Season

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
B-side
  
"I'll Call You Mine"

Format
  
7-inch single

Label
  
CBS

Released
  
March 1968 (1968-03)

Length
  
3:34

Recorded
  
August 1967, Abbey Road Studios, London

"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.

Contents

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, topped the Cashbox chart, and reached number 1 in Canada. It did not chart in the band's native Britain, but Rob Argent has said that it later became "a classic in the UK, but it's never been a hit." 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.

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

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

Usage in pop culture

"Time of The Season" is frequently used in pop culture to represent the late 1960s. 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. The song was played during the 2013 supernatural horror movie The Conjuring, which took place in 1971.

It has been used as incidental or scene-setting music during many episodes of many television programs. The song is featured in the Friends episode "The One With the Flashback" and the South Park episode "201".

"Time of the Season" 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.

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.
  • 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 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.
  • In 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.

    • 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

    Time of the Season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA