In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, in honor of the return of Mad Men on April 5 for its final seven episodes, we’re looking at some of the show’s most important song selections.
The Zombies, “This Will Be Our Year” (1968)
While Mad Men has always excelled at selecting the music with which to sign off at the end of an episode, the show has rarely offered up as heartfelt and earnest a tune as this one. At the end of season seven’s second episode, “A Day’s Work,” Don has been caught in a lie by his daughter Sally. He’s the lowest he’s ever been, professionally, at least with regard to his tenure at the company that built him up and then sent him crashing back to Earth when he got too reckless. He’s struggling with booze, he’s at loose ends with his marriage, and just when things seem darkest, he gets a phone call from Sally. “I love you,” she says, and the strains of The Zombies take us into the closing credits. It’s that rarest of Mad Men moments: light at the end of the tunnel.
The Zombies were an also-ran in the British pop invasion, a group that never quite attained the massive success suggested by the strength of its music. Despite having an album ranked number 100 in Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest albums of all time (1968’s Odessey And Oracle), the band’s name is only vaguely known by most people, usually as the source of the 1964 hit, “She’s Not There.” The song was The Zombies’ stateside calling card, hitting No.2 on the charts in December of that year. The band flew across the pond on the strength of that hit, playing shows and making its TV debut to the sound of screaming teenage girls, per the legal requirements of the time.