The Making of ONE YEAR - featuring Colin Blunstone

Life of the Record

For the 50th anniversary of the baroque pop classic, ONE YEAR, Colin Blunstone looks back on the unique circumstances around how his first solo album was made. After the end of The Zombies, a band he formed as a teenager with Rod Argent, Hugh Grundy, Paul Atkinson and Paul Arnold, Blunstone found himself unsure about continuing in the music business. The Zombies had recorded ODESSEY AND ORACLE at Abbey Road Studios in 1967, but the initial singles failed to generate interest so the band called it quits before the album was released. Blunstone began working as an insurance clerk in London when “Time of the Season” unexpectedly started to chart in the United States in 1969. Producer, Mike Hurst, convinced Blunstone to make music again and he released a few singles under the pseudonym, Neil MacArthur. Later, former Zombies bandmates, Rod Argent and Chris White, talked Blunstone into recording a solo album under his own name with the two of them co-producing. From Chris Gunning’s breathtaking string arrangements to an unlikely hit of a 21-piece orchestra pop tune to a painfully honest account of his breakup with actress, Caroline Munro, to getting the old Zombies team back together again, we’ll hear the stories around how ONE YEAR came together.