Rodney Terence Argent, born 14 June 1945, is an English keyboardist, singer, songwriter and record producer. In a career that's spanned more than half a century, Argent has outlasted countless musical and cultural changes in order to remain true to his own distinctive muse. 

 

Argent first experienced pop stardom early in life with British Invasion legends The Zombies, explored progressive-rock experimentalism with the '70s band that bears his surname, composed for film and television, and more recently reemerged with a revived version of The Zombies, the fabled combo (and 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee) that first put him on the map in the heady days of the 1960s.

 

Argent's musical adventures began early in life, in his hometown of St. Albans in Hertfordshire, where he absorbed jazz, classical and early rock 'n' roll, while singing in the St. Albans Cathedral Choir. During his early teens, with encouragement from his cousin Jim Rodford,  Argent launched the Zombies, with singer Colin Blunstone, guitarist Paul Atkinson, bassist Chris White and drummer Hugh Grundy. All five members were still at school at the time.

 

Early on, Rod's adventurous musical sensibility manifested itself in his sophisticated songwriting and his complex keyboard work. Although he had originally intended to be The Zombies' lead singer, Argent's keyboard skills made it apparent that he was destined to be the group's keyboardist, and he relinquished frontman duties to Blunstone.

 

It didn't take long for the fledgling Zombies to stand out amongst the rising tide of young British Invasion acts. In December 1964, when Rod was just 20, one of Rod's earliest compositions, the intricate and mysterious "She's Not There," made The Zombies the first British group, after the Beatles, to reach Number One on the American singles charts with a self-penned song.

 

The Zombies continued to record and tour, expanding their musical horizons as well as their popularity. Another Argent composition, "Tell Her No," became a massive U.S. hit in 1965.  By the summer of 1967, though, The Zombies' commercial fortunes seemed to be on the wane, and the band set about recording the sonically and thematically ambitious album Odessey and Oracle. Intended as the band's swan song, and as a showcase for Argent and White's rapidly evolving production skills, and Rod's abilities on such exotic instruments as harpsichord and mellotron, Odessey and Oracle was initially a commercial disappointment, although the year-old, Argent-penned "Time of the Season" belatedly emerged as a late-blooming hit in America.

 

Although it was largely ignored at the time of its original release in 1968, Odessey and Oracle would eventually emerge as one of rock's most beloved cult items, proclaimed as a personal favorite by the likes of Tom Petty, Dave Grohl and Paul Weller, not to mention countless fans and critics around the globe.

 

When "Time of the Season" became a surprise hit, however, Argent and the other band members resisted the temptation to reform The Zombies. Argent and White preferred to focus on their energies upon the new outfit Argent, as well as their production and songwriting work on Blunstone's solo debut One Year.

 

“Time of the Season” received a BMI Award for achieving 7 Million plays on US radio back in 2015, and the songs that Rod Argent wrote as a member of The Zombies in the 1960s continue their relevance today, with over 3 Million monthly listeners on Spotify alone.  

 

But Argent has always been more interested in creating new music than in lingering on past glories, as was obvious when he formed his '70s outfit Argent—which also included singer/guitarist Russ Ballard, Rod's cousin Jim Rodford on bass, Bob Henrit on drums and ex-Zombie Chris White in a writing/production capacity. 

 

Argent had a productive seven-year run that yielded the albums Argent, Ring of Hands, All Together Now, In Deep, Nexus, Circus and Counterpoints, which offered a mix of catchy songcraft and progressive experimentation, tapping into the period's impulse towards bigger, more complex sounds while showcasing the band's knack for infectious choruses. The foursome's facility for infectious hooks and anthemic choruses helped to make Argent one of the few prog-leaning album-rock outfits to achieve success on the singles charts. 

 

After Argent the band dissolved in 1976, Rod moved into freelance and session work, releasing the solo albums Moving Home and Red House, writing the 1982 stage musical Masquerade, and contributing keyboards to The Who's album Who Are You and the Gary Moore/Andrew Lloyd Webber collaboration Variations. He also joined Webber for several of his original cast recordings, including Phantom of the Opera and Cats.  

 

Also in the late '70s and '80s, Argent wrote music extensively for British television, notably “Aztec Gold”, the theme song for ITV’s coverage of the “Mexico ‘86” World Cup. In 1987, he formed a successful production partnership with ex-Van Morrison drummer Peter Van Hooke. Argent and Van Hooke co-produced chart-topping albums for such esteemed young artists as  Tania Tikaram, Nanci Griffith, Soraya, Joshua Kadison and Jules Shear. In 1999, Argent explored his classical interests by recording Classically Speaking, a collection of solo piano recordings, including pieces by Chopin, Ravel, Bach and Grieg.

 

By this point, Argent was enjoying working largely behind the scenes as a producer. But public demand led to the five original Zombies staging a one-night reunion on stage in November 1997 to celebrate the career-spanning box set Zombie Heaven, and led to Argent and Colin Blunstone agreeing to reunite for half a dozen low-key UK live gigs in late 1999.  Ongoing demand soon turned that temporary reunion into a permanent one, with Argent and Blunstone forming a new touring and recording lineup (originally anchored by faithful bassist Jim Rodford, who would pass away in 2018, and Jim's son Steve on drums) that would prove popular and musically productive.  

 

In 2004, the five original Zombies reunited once again on the occasion of guitarist Paul Atkinson receiving the President's Merit Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences at a benefit concert at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. Paul Atkinson passed away a few months later, but in March 2008 Argent and Blunstone again reunited with Grundy and White to perform the Odessey and Oracle album live at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire.  The four reunited once again in 2015 to take the Odessey and Oracle show on the road in America.

 

When Argent and Blunstone originally agreed to reunite for half a dozen club gigs, they scarcely suspected that their longstanding musical and personal rapport, combined with ongoing public demand, would make the temporary reunion a permanent one. Those shows quickly stretched into two decades' worth of committed recording and roadwork, along with a series of well-received new albums, namely 2001's Out of the Shadows, 2004's As Far As I Can See..., 2011's Breathe Out Breathe In, 2015's aptly-titled Still Got That Hunger, and most recently, 2023’s Different Game.  The modern-day Zombies remain one of rock's hardest-working touring bands, continuing to perform for a fiercely loyal audience that combines longtime devotees and younger admirers.

 

"When we got back together, the last thing I wanted to do was to rake over a few old embers or rehash the past," Argent asserts.  "When promoters started to bill us as The Zombies, we initially kicked against it.  But then we realized that there was a lot of The Zombies’ material that we'd never played on stage the first time round, and we started to enjoy investigating that stuff.  From there, we started to feel like we could incorporate new material, and feeling that there's a creative path forward.  It all developed very naturally, and it's continued that way."

 

After 25 years of performing with this new incarnation of The Zombies, at  79, Rod Argent has finally called an end to his touring career, after suffering a stroke following a triumphant tour of the UK in 2024.  However, he remains committed to continuing to create vibrant new music with his bandmates.