? & the Mysterians

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? & the Mysterians were an American rock and roll band formed in Flint, Michigan in 1962.

The group is best known for their song "96 Tears", a garage rock classic recorded in 1966 that reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. ? & the Mysterians were perhaps the first band to be described as punk rock^[1], and also may be the first Latino rock group to have a general audience hit record. The group named itself after the 1957 Japanese science fiction film The Mysterians, in which aliens from the destroyed planet Mysteroid arrive to conquer Earth.

The band's frontman was Question Mark, whose real name is believed to be Rudy Martinez but who legally changed his name to ?. His eccentric behavior helped to briefly establish the group in the national consciousness. He claimed (and still claims) to be a Martian who lived with dinosaurs in a past life, and he never appears in public without sunglasses. He also claims that "voices" told him he would still be performing "96 Tears" in the year 10,000.

1 History
2 Discography
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] History

The original lineup was formed in 1962, comprising Larry Borjas (bass), Borjas' cousin Robert Balderrama (guitar) and Robert Martinez (drums). They soon added Frank Rodriguez (organ) and Rudy Rodriguez on vocals. These Mexican-American musicians were mostly born in Texas but grew up in Michigan. Borjas and Robert Martinez were soon drafted, and Frank Lugo (bass) and Eddie Serrato (drums) replaced them.

? soon wrote the song that would become their first and only hit. Originally titled "Too Many Teardrops", it was later dubbed "69 Tears", and then (to improve its chance for air time) "96 Tears". With Rodriguez's catchy Vox organ riff and its plaintive chorus, "96 Tears" was originally recorded as a single for local Pa-Go-Go Records, owned by the group's manager. The song became a regional hit in the Flint and Detroit areas. ? licensed the record to Cameo-Parkway Records because their logo was his favorite color, orange.

"96 Tears" was quickly a huge hit, as was their debut album, 96 Tears. Their next two singles ("I Need Somebody,"" and "Can't Get Enough of You Baby") were also hits, but nowhere near as popular as "96 Tears". The group's second album, Action, was not as successful, and the band next briefly recorded with Capitol Records, Tangerine Records and Super K, but they found little success. In the meantime, "96 Tears" became part of the standard garage rock repertoire, and has been recorded in dozens -- if not hundreds -- of different versions.

In the early 1970s, ? & the Mysterians reformed but once again were unable to attract much attention. ? worked as a dog breeder until the band reconvened in 1978, playing a reunion concert in Dallas, Texas. Still without renewed success, the group disbanded again until "the voices from the future" told ? to reform the band in 1997. This time they found more success with a new generation of music fans who had discovered the garage punk records of the 1960s through reissues such as the Nuggets series of albums, and the many other bands playing then in the same style. The reformed Mysterians gigged sporadically throughout 1998 and 1999 and made two visits to Europe, where in November 1998 they wowed a capacity crowd at the "Wild Weekend" garage rock weekend in London. They followed with a second, longer tour in summer 1999 and an unlikely appearance at the Royal Festival Hall classical music venue as part of the "Meltdown 1999" music festival.

Unable to secure the rights to their own recordings, which now belong to Allen Klein, the Mysterians re-recorded their original 1966 album and released it again on a new label in 1997. Do You Feel It Baby?, a live album, was released in 1998 with moderate success. There was also a new studio album, More Action, in 1999. Meantime, in 1998, the band Smash Mouth had a hit with a cover of the Mysterians' "Can't Get Enough of You Baby", which appeared in the Can't Hardly Wait movie soundtrack.

The Mysterians still play live in and around their home state of Michigan, and a documentary film about them is slowly being assembled. Titled Are You For Real, it will include footage from their forty years in the music business - from 1966 to the 1997 reformation and up to the present.

The group's name provided inspiration for naming an important new branch of the philosophy of mind (New Mysterianism).