Care Of Cell 44. The Zombies. 1968. Date.
Shortly after Care Of Cell 44 was released as a single on Date Records in November, 1967, The Zombies broke up. The single sold poorly, which is thought to have added to tensions already at play among group members during studio sessions that summer for the group’s stunning second record, Odessey and Oracle. One notable source of group discord was a disagreement between songwriter Rod Argent and vocalist Colin Blunstone over how another Argent composition might have been sung. The upside of this conflict was the transformative power it endowed Blunstone. An epistolary tale of a romantic partnership interrupted by incarceration, Care of Cell 44 is as conventionally structured a pop song as any to have emerged from the U.K.; three verses, a chorus, and a bridge. The first chorus appears after an eight beat countdown backed by a Pet Sounds-era multi vocal harmony that falls between the second verse’s final line—“and then you can tell me all about your prison stay”—and Blunstone’s thrillin...