Song of the Day 7/29: The Zombies, “She’s Not There”

Controversial NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers has had only three confirmed concussions in his career, but he sure acts like he has brain damage. He’s in the news now because, after a stormy history with women, he says he recently got married – but nobody can confirm the woman exists.

Rodgers started talking about “Brittani” back in December. Nobody has seen a picture of her – he claims she shuns publicity and isn’t on social media, to which, yeah, right. Now he claims they were married in June. There’s still nobody who can confirm meeting her, and nosy reporters who searched marriage records in several states found nothing. In short, photos or it didn’t happen.

Rodgers broke out of the sports pages and into the general news stream during the pandemic, when he became one of the country’s highest-profile anti-vaxxers, and he’s since embraced a string of conspiracy theories. Now he’s hallucinating a spouse. If this is what being unvaxxed is like, I’m glad I got the shots.

It’s easy to forget that the Zombies were in the vanguard of the first British Invasion. “She’s Not There,” their first single, was released in July 1964, five months after the Beatles touched down at JFK. With its jazzy chords, Colin Blunstone’s breathy vocals and Rod Argent’s nimble hand on the Hohner Pianet, it sounded more sophisticated than most of the hits of the day, British or American. The Argent-penned composition, inspired by John Lee Hooker’s “No One Told Me,” climbed the charts slowly before topping out at No. 2 in December.

The song, with a new arrangement, was a hit again for Santana in 1977. His version, with vocals by R&B singer Greg Walker, reached No. 27.