{"id":384467,"date":"2025-08-30T06:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T06:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/384467\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T06:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T06:36:14","slug":"the-way-she-delivered-it-was-more-important-than-the-actual-subject-matter-her-delivery-of-that-chorus-is-so-powerful-how-the-cranberries-created-the-monster-hit-zombie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/384467\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe way she delivered it was more important than the actual subject matter. Her delivery of that chorus is so powerful\u201d: How The Cranberries created the monster hit Zombie"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the biggest song of The Cranberries\u2019 career, and guitarist Noel Hogan can still vividly recall the moment when he first heard an early version of it \u2013 sung and strummed on acoustic guitar by Dolores O\u2019Riordan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were at a house a friend of ours let us use to rehearse,\u201d Hogan tells MusicRadar. \u201cDolores came in with it and started playing it on acoustic. She was like, \u2018I had this idea\u2026\u2019 And then we all started doing our thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The song in question was Zombie, and it became a classic alternative rock anthem of the \u201890s.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Formed in the Irish city of Limerick, The Cranberries had success right off the bat with their debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can\u2019t We? Released in 1993, the album featured jangly hits Dreams and Linger, which leaned more toward the sound of The Smiths than period-correct grunge rock.<\/p>\n

The Cranberries – Linger (Official Music Video) – YouTube
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But when they set about working on their second album, No Need To Argue, their approach had changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were definitely a lot more confident,\u201d Hogan says.<\/p>\n

And along with that confidence came a willingness to expand their horizons.<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the first album, Dolores and I kept writing constantly,\u201d Hogan recalls. \u201cIf we finished the album on, say, a Friday, we were back to writing again on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Hogan \u2013 a young and green player at the time \u2013 this period was a steep learning curve. \u201cWe were playing every single day,\u201d he says, \u201cand when we went into the second album, we were more confident and way tighter as a band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retaining the services of producer Stephen Street, The Cranberries shifted into heavier territory.<\/p>\n

This was clearly evident with Zombie, an idiosyncratic track with a hard-hitting message and an even harder-hitting guitar track that propped it up.<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t start out that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest,\u201d Hogan says, \u201cwe\u2019d always done this kind of jangly pop guitar, this lighter-on-the-drums thing. It was Dolores who said, \u2018No, this song is angry. That needs to be reflected.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the turning point. After that, we all started playing a lot heavier. I literally went off and bought my first distortion pedal! I had to get a sound, and I couldn\u2019t get it without that pedal.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, The Cranberries were touring relentlessly. While their early songs were lighter in nature, they would heavy them up in live shows. And so, when they dropped Zombie into the mix, the crowds responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put it in the set as a test run,\u201d Hogan explains. \u201cIt really seemed to strike a chord straight away. There was just this reaction to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny how things worked out,\u201d he adds. \u201cBy the time we got to record that song, the grunge thing had come along. Nirvana<\/a> and Pearl Jam<\/a> were really big.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cranberries were never a grunge band, even if they were half-heartedly marketed that way out of convenience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never understood that,\u201d Hogan insists. \u201cBut I, as a guitar player, was kind of thinking, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s the kind of sound I need to get for this.\u2019 So the timing just kind of worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores O\u2019Riordan was the sole writer credited on Zombie, but Hogan played an important role in its creation. \u201cI was able to fill that song with a lot more sound,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d started buying a lot of gear then. I\u2019d go to pawn shops, and things like that. I\u2019d grab vintage [Vox] AC30s and Marshalls. And I had an ES-335 that I\u2019d gotten \u2013 I used that on Zombie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also had a [Gibson] Les Paul. I ran them through the AC30, cranked it up, and added a Tele. That\u2019s the guitar sound that everybody heard on the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Zombie was very much O\u2019Riordan\u2019s song. Her enigmatic lyrics depicted ongoing struggles in Northern Ireland. And her voice was astonishing \u2013 described by Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times as a \u201cdesperate, yodeling vocal that conjures some ancient emotion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hogan says of O\u2019Riordan\u2019s performance: \u201cThe way she delivered it was more important than the actual subject matter. Her delivery of that chorus is so powerful, and it was a far more aggressive song in that sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the subject matter, the four of us [in the band] grew up at a time when the Troubles were constantly on the news. It was only 100 miles north of us, so it wasn\u2019t a big surprise that she was singing about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inevitably those lyrics attracted controversy.<\/p>\n

Says Hogan: \u201cAs far as the powers outside of the four of us, we never worried about how it would be received.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the band\u2019s management didn\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they and the record company had slight concerns,\u201d Hogan says. \u201cBut that song just seemed to hit a nerve and click.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a huge song everywhere. No matter what, thankfully, people understood what Dolores was trying to say with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cranberries – Zombie (Official Music Video) – YouTube
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Zombie was a major hit all around the world, hitting No.1 in Australia, France and Germany and several other territories. It was deemed ineligible for the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, but on the Alternative Airplay chart it hit No. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people were very surprised at the dramatic change from Dreams, which was the last single they\u2019d heard from us,\u201d Hogan says. \u201cDreams and Zombie were completely different types of songs. But look \u2013 it worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were touring around the US in the \u201890s, so far away from where we came from in Ireland. At the time, not a lot of English or Irish bands were breaking in America, but Zombie was a big one, and it was just amazing to be accepted like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zombie took The Cranberries to another level, skyrocketing them to fame. The song became a hallmark of the \u201890s alternative era, and the band\u2019s career post-to-post.<\/p>\n

Hogan tells MusicRadar that this song means even more to him since he lost Dolores O\u2019Riordan, who died in a freak drowning accident in a London hotel room in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cZombie was just such a huge success,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were thankful for it. It was popular then, and it\u2019s been around a long time now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the biggest song of The Cranberries\u2019 career, and guitarist Noel Hogan can still vividly recall the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-384467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115116335887154084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}