My 15 (+1) Favorite Songs of 2009: 8. The Zombies, “I Want Her She Wants Me” (1968).
8. The Zombies, “I Want Her She Wants Me”
- Official website.
- From the 1968 album Odessey and Oracle (Amazon mp3 link).
I fell in love with the Zombies only a few years ago – to think I’d lived so long without ever really hearing them, “She’s Not There” notwithstanding! — and it’s a relationship that continues to grow strong, particularly with their incredible 1968 album Odessey and Oracle – surely up there with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pet Sounds as one of the great albums of the late ‘60s. (I’m reminded of how I finally “heard” Pet Sounds about a decade ago, once I really listened to it, and was floored at its beauty.) I still pull out Odessey and Oracle fairly regularly and I’m always surprised at the depth of its musical riches. Unfortunately, the Zombies would split up just before the album – and their biggest hit, “Time of the Season” – was released.
“I Want Her She Wants Me” wasn’t even released as a single, or even a b-side; it’s just one practically throwaway track tucked in between the baroque “Changes” and the sublime “This Will Be Our Year”. Recorded a few months after their biggest concert audiences at that point in their career – in the Philippines, as it happens, with Diomedes Maturan as one of their opening acts – the song is pure pop sweetness from Rod Argent, with impeccable harmonies and electric harpsichord. They constitute the only frills in what is otherwise an ordinary love song pared down to its very essence, to the simple logical proposition in the title. If only love was always that simple.
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The rest of the list so far:
9. Ben Kweller, “Old Hat” (2009)
10. Ida Maria, “Oh My God” (2007)
11. Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel, “How Do You Judge Me” (2003)
12. The Phenomenal Handclap Band, “15 to 20″ (2009)
13. Speech Debelle, “The Key” (2009)
14. ComaR, “I Want You D.A.N.C.E.” (2008)
15. Michael Jackson, “Happy” (1973)
16. Wonder Girls, “Nobody” (2008)
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