The Carnabeats (ザ・カーナビーツ) are one of the better known "group sounds" bands, known to foreigners largely for their Japanese language versions of Zombies hits. While they will perhaps forever be known as the "Japanese Zombies", the group had a string of hits beyond their covers, and the members cite The Who and The Lovin' Spoonful as other influences. The nucleus of the band, drummer Ai Takano, then just sixteen years old, and his slightly older guitarist friend Jiro Kitamura, first started playing together in early 1967.