1964 Rock Hit Named One of the Greatest Songs of All Time Was the First Song the Band Ever Wrote

"She's Not There," which was recorded 62 years ago today, was the debut single by the Zombies. The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964 and went on to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was also named one of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" by Rolling Stone magazine. It came in at number 297, right below "Stan" by Eminem and "Can't Buy Me Love" by The Beatles.

When speaking about the creation of "She's Not There," the keyboardist and vocalist from the Zombies, Rod Argent, said, "The idea was that we'd record the Gershwins' 'Summertime' as our first single, but a couple of weeks before we were due to go in our producer Ken Jones said: ‘You should really try and write something for the session.' I had only ever written one song before."

Argent went on to explain that "She's Not There" was inspired by a John Lee Hooker album, which had the track "No One Told Me." As reported by Louder Sound, Argent explained, "I really liked the rhythm of that phrase. I started with a minor-to-major chord sequence. At least that's what I thought it was. I realized later that I'd actually played these chords in a modal sort of way, which gives the beginning of 'She's Not There' its characteristic flavor. Then I had this idea of building up to a climax. I wanted it to be exciting and make use of Colin's vocal talents. So at the end of the song, I had the poor guy singing at the top of his range. Which he cursed me for many times when we had to go on BBC radio at 10 o'clock in the morning."

Related: 1967 Classic Rock Song, With a Distinctive Guitar Riff, Became a Recognizable Anthem

When asked what the best decision the band ever made was, frontman Colin Blunstone told Rock Cellar, "I think, possibly, just to record our own songs." He then told a similar story to Argent, crediting Jones for the idea to create their own music, and continued, "It encouraged Rod and Chris to go and write their first songs. Rod, I think he'd written one song before, but he only told me that later on. But so in all intents and purposes, ‘She's Not There' was the first song that he wrote, and suddenly, it just put us in a different light. We were no longer a band that just played rhythm and blues and blues classics."

The Zombies have had many more hits since their debut, from "Time of the Season" to "Tell Her No" to "Leave Me Be." The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. To this day, they are still together.

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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 9:41 AM.