A bunch of Hertfordshire schoolboys who started playing gigs at St Albans' Old Verulamians Rugby Club in 1962, Rod Argent (piano, organ and vocals), Paul Atkinson (guitar and vocals) and drummer Hugh Grundy were at St Albans School, while Colin Blunstone (vocals) and Chris White (bass, vocals) attended St Albans Boys' Grammar School (later renamed Verulam School, the nearby Roman city of Verulamium was where the first British martyr St Alban met his end). Argent had been a member of St Albans Cathedral Choir.
Apparently needing a whacky name (The Zombies was chosen ahead of Chatterley and the Gamekeepers) the outfit's victory in a beat-group competition sponsored by the London Evening News landed them the recording contract with Decca which resulted in She's Not There, the second song Argent had written. Not a bad strike rate.
She's Not There was a moderate hit in the UK, but the follow-up (Leave Me Be) failed to chart there. They were more successful across the Atlantic, where Tell Her No peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1965. They also did well in Scandinavia and the Philippines.
The Zombies's debut album, 1965's Begin Here blended original material and R&B covers, and while they were still with Decca they cut enough material for a second album, but lack of chart action in the UK saw the material consigned to the vaults.