Zoot – Eleanor Rigby
Beeb Birtles: “In 1970, Heavy Metal bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, started to become popular. We (Zoot) had dropped the pink image and earned quite a reputation for taking well known songs by people like Neil Diamond and The Beatles. We had our own arrangements, completely changing these songs around to suit the heavy metal type of music more. That’s how we came to record Zoot’s biggest single ever.”
It was The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby and to this day the Zoot version is hailed as an Australian classic. It entered the national Top 40 in Jan 1971 and stayed for more than 20 weeks peaking at #4.
Zoot – Eleanor Rigby
Written by Lennon/McCartney
Arranged by: Rick Springfield
Released December 1970
In December Zoot released a hard rock cover of The Beatles’ song, “Eleanor Rigby” which became their most popular single when it peaked at No. 4 in March 1971. It remained in the Top 40 for twenty weeks and reached No. 12 on the Top Records for the Year of 1971.