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Old 07-08-2019, 07:20 AM   #162
Breeze
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
24. ? and the Mysterians – 96 Tears (1966)

Total Points – 420
Charts – 3
Top 40 – 0
Top 20 – 1
Top 10 – 1
Highest Ranking – 5

This American garage rock band of Mexican descent started in the Saginaw and Bay City areas of Michigan. The band took their name from a 1957 Japanese sci-fi movie “The Mysterians”. The band’s organ-driven sound and raw vocals of Rudy Martinez led them to get one of the early punk rock labels, and their approach created a template that other similar groups followed. This was the band’s first single and it reached #1 on the Hot 100, and it kicked off a 15 month run of national prominence, where this song and it’s follow up single “I Need Somebody” kept them in the spotlight. However, subsequent releases failed to generate enough interest to get the band back in the Top 40, though they did have 2 other singles that reached the Hot 100. Unfortunately for the band, their label Cameo-Parkway was shutdown by the Security and Exchange Commission for stock manipulation taking all the band’s money with them. The song was ranked #213 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It also was the 5th biggest hit of 1966 behind, “The Ballad of the Green Berets” by Sgt. Barry Sadler, “Cherish” by the Association, “(You’re My) Soul and Insiration” by the Righteous Brothers, and “Reach Out I’ll Be There” by the Four Tops.

Last edited by Breeze : 07-08-2019 at 07:22 AM.
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