Argent (band) - WikiHQ

Argent were  a British rock band formed in 1969 by former Zombies keyboardist Rod Argent. They had three UK Top 40 singles: "Hold Your Head Up", which reached No. 5 and spent 12 weeks on the chart, "Tragedy" (No. 34), and "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" (No. 18). Two of their albums charted in the UK: All Together Now, which peaked at No. 13 in 1972, and In Deep, which spent one week at No. 49 in 1973.

Their first album, Argent, was critically acclaimed, if not a massive seller. It was a solid start and contained the song "Liar", which was subsequently covered by Three Dog Night. 1971's Ring of Hands was their second album and featured the minor hit "Sweet Mary". All Together Now was their third album, released in 1972. It featured the song that they are best remembered for: "Hold Your Head Up", which was a Top 5 hit in both UK and the US charts.

Rodford died after a fall on 20 January 2018, at age 76.

Band members

Rod Argent – keyboards, backing and lead vocals (1969–1976, 2010, 2012, 2013)
Bob Henrit – drums (1969–1976, 2010, 2012, 2013)
Jim Rodford – bass guitar, backing vocals (1969–1976, 2010, 2012, 2013; died 2018)
Russ Ballard – guitar, lead vocals (1969–1974, 2010, 2012, 2013)
John Verity – guitar, lead vocals (1974–1976)
John Grimaldi – guitar (1974–1975; died 1983)

{| class="wikitable"

!1969-1974

! colspan="2" |1974-1976

!2010, 2012, 2013

|Rod Argent

|keyboards, backing and lead vocals, producer, songwriter

|keyboards, backing and lead vocals

|Bob Henrit

|drums

|Russ Ballard

|guitar, lead vocals, songwriter

|guitar, lead vocals

|Jim Rodford

|bass guitar, backing vocals

|bass guitar, backing vocals, songwriter

|bass guitar, backing vocals

|John Verity

|guitar, lead vocals

|John Grimaldi

|guitar

|guitar, songwriter

|Chris White

|producer, songwriter

|producer

|Tony Visconti

|producer

Timeline

Songs

Argent's biggest hit was the Rod Argent and Chris White composition "Hold Your Head Up", featuring lead vocals by Russ Ballard, from the All Together Now album, which, in a heavily edited single form, reached No. 5 in the US. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

The sound of the band was a mix of rock and pop, but also covered more progressive rock territory in songs like "The Coming of Kohoutek", an instrumental from their Nexus album. When Ballard left the band after Encore, they took an even more progressive/fusion turn with their final Epic album Circus and then signed to a new record label (RCA) for the final 1975 album Counterpoints. By 2005, all albums, including compilations, have been re-released on CD, except Counterpoints.

Legacy

Argent recorded the original version of "God Gave Rock and Roll to You", written by Russ Ballard, which was covered by Kiss in 1991 under the name "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II", and featured prominently at the end of the film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. The song also became a Contemporary Christian rock anthem and was twice covered by the Christian Rock band Petra, in 1977 (on the album Come and Join Us) and again in 1984 (on the album Beat the System), with new verses.

Some of Ballard's compositions became hits when they were covered by other artists, including Rainbow ("Since You Been Gone", from the album Down to Earth, and "I Surrender", from the album Difficult to Cure), Kiss, Petra, Hello, Santana, and more recently the Brazilian metal band Oficina G3. The Russ Ballard song "Liar", on Argent's first album, became a hit for Three Dog Night in 1971 and was also released as a single, ten years later, by Graham Bonnet (former Rainbow vocalist, who sang the vocal on "Since You Been Gone"), taken from his debut album Line-Up.

Fish (former lead singer of Marillion) recorded a version of "Hold Your Head Up" for his 1993 album Songs from the Mirror, a selection of his favourite songs. The American band Phish play an instrumental version of "Hold Your Head Up", usually as a transition into a "joke song" by drummer Jon Fishman. "Hold Your Head Up" was covered in 1987 by the band 20/Twenty and (in the same year) by Australian group the Party Boys. Mother Love Bone recorded a cover of "Hold Your Head Up" in 1989. Their version was released on a promotional only 7" vinyl in 1989. It was reissued on 7" vinyl in 2014 as a limited edition Black Friday Record Store Day release on Stardog/Republic Records. The band Jellyfish opened most of their shows with an abbreviated version of "Hold Your Head Up".

Discography

Studio albums

{| class="wikitable"

! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Year

! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album

! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Label

! scope="col" colspan="3"| Peak chart positions

! style="width:40px;"| US

! style="width:40px;"| UK

! style="width:40px;"| CAN

| 1970

| Argent

| rowspan="6"|Epic

| style="text-align:center;"| –

| 1971

| Ring of Hands

| style="text-align:center;"| –

| 1972

| All Together Now

| style="text-align:center;"| 23

| style="text-align:center;"| 13

| style="text-align:center;"| 14

| 1973

| In Deep

| style="text-align:center;"| 90

| style="text-align:center;"| 49

| style="text-align:center;"| 69

| 1974

| Nexus

| style="text-align:center;"| 149

| style="text-align:center;"| –

| rowspan="2"| 1975

| Circus

| style="text-align:center;"| 171

| style="text-align:center;"| –

| Counterpoints

| RCA

| style="text-align:center;"| –

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center; font-size:9pt;"| "–" denotes releases that did not chart.

Live albums

{| class="wikitable"

! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Year

! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album

! scope="col" colspan="2"| Peak chart positions

! style="width:40px;"| US

! style="width:40px;"| UK