The Best Of ? & The Mysterians 1966-1967

One ☝ of the most popular one hit wonders of the 60's with 96 Tears. This CD is a very good look at their collection of garage band sounds of the time. I saw this band back in the day at the Southside Womans Club and were very cool 😎 sunglasses and all. Sure brings back memories..........

They may have been a one-hit-wonder, but what a hit! 96 Tears is still a unique rock song, full of hypnotic atmosphere and clever musicianship more than 40 years after its release. The other material on the album is interesting and for the most part, equally well-played and quite enjoyable though less remarkable and less commercial than the band's one big hit. Some songs are ballads, a few are quite bluesy, and others bristle with the unique sound that made 96 Tears a song worth listening to for more than 40 years. With 27 tracks on the CD it's a good sampling of what this band had to offer. I waited for years for this music to become available on CD and purchased this disc without hesitation once I discovered it. Don't sit "down there, lookin up", buy it now!

This CD is excellent except for a couple songs that came on mono they should have those two songs remaster like they did with the last two songs on the CD but other than that is great !

Mom dad grew up withe these guys and '96 Tears' is one of his fave songs. It was awesome to surprise him with such a simply gift and see how much he loved it. Check it out!

This group had one only hit in the top 40 and it was 96 tears. But there is much more to this garage band than that one hit. This set covers the 2 lps they released in the sixties which were no longer available until now. From listening to the tracks on this cd you can see that they were very good musicians and there sound was very unique. These one-hit-wonders should not be ignored.John Walsh

Purchased for my mom and she just loves it! Her and my dad should remember the song 96 tears... It was playing the day they met 😃

Question Mark and the Mysterians had one of the hottest garage band hits of the 1960's. The hit song "96 Tears" inspired countless young musicians of the era. Simple, quirky, raw, and pure, these are American sixties rock 'n roll garage band songs that jumped out of the AM radio right at you. This CD is a great collection of the best of Question Mark and the Mysterians. Call them garage band, call them proto-punk, there are great songs here that really reflect the grass-root efforts of many young bands in that era. Enjoy!

Great quality and Songs!

Well, Initially That Was What The Group Wanted To Entitle The Song...This CD Is Their Outing For The Kal Mann-Bernie Lowe-Owned CAMEO Records Imprint( The Entire CAMEO / PARKWAY Catalogue Was Later Purchased By Allen Klein Who " Sat On It " For Years So CD Issues On The Label(s) By Artists Such As The Orlons And The Dovells Were Late Hitting Release )The Great Thing About This Issue Is That It Includes A Demo Version Of " 96 Tears "Though Not In The Liner Notes, There Is A Great Story How CAMEO Came By The Master For " 96 Tears "The Tune Was Originally Released On The Tiny PA-Go-Go Label ( With Both Michigan And Texas Addresses )( PA G0-Go Was Co- Owned By Lilly Gonzalez - Shortened To One Of The " Go " On The Label )The Record Began Making Noise, And Morris Levy Of ROULETTE Records Began To Show An Interest.He Was Told By His A&R People To " Wait Over The Weekend And Then We'll Do The Deal "On THAT Friday, Neil Bogart Who Was Then Working For CAMEO Records,Took A Flight And Bought The Master !On Monday Morning, Morris Levy Got The News That He Had Been Usurped By CAMEO And He Was Livid.( It Was One Of The Very Few Times Any Other Label Beat ROULETTE To The Post )To Make Matters Worse, The Record Went To Number One, And World-Wide Sod Some 3 1/2 Million Units.After A Long Track Record Of Hits, This Was The Last One For CAMEO / PARKWAY ( 1966 )Although The Identity Of " ? " Was Usually Kept Under Wraps, One Los Angeles Disc Jockey Seemed To Know Who He Was Back Then ( 1966 ) He Came On The Air Several Times And Stated That " ? " Was " A Cat By The Name Of Rudy Martinez Who Was Born In Mexico And Raised In Michigan "He Had Been Correct !A Billboard " Bio " Stated That The Rest Of The Band Were All From The Saginaw Valley Region Of Michigan "However, A " Bio " From CAMEO / PARKWAY ( Dated November, 1966 ) Stated That " Two Of The Boys Are Texans "" Frankie Rodriguez On Keyboards Is From Crystal City And Bassist Frank Lugo Is From Weslaco "In Addition, The " Bio " Stated That Two Other Group-Members Were From Mexico." Drummer Edward Serrato And Guitarist Bobby Balderama " ( In Addition To ? =Rudy Martinez )" The Boys Know What Hard Work And Pinching Pennies Mean -Most Of Their Families Have Migrated North From Texas Picking Fruit And Working On Farms Harvesting Crops "" No More Hard Times - CAMEO Records Has Already Shipped Almost A Million Copies " **** It Should Be Noted That Among Group-Member Changes, Bassist Mel Schacher Later Joined The Band.He Would Go On Join A Far Bigger-Selling Group: Grand Funk Railroad. One Of The First " Super-Groups "Five Stars For A Band That Had No Idea They Would Hit A National Number One, Become A House-Hold Name In The Annals Of Popular Music, And Recorded One Of The Most Well-Known Tunes Of The Era ( Or Ever! )Five Stars For A Compilation From A Label ( CAMEO ) That Gave The Worrld So Much Great Music.....You're Gonna Cry....96 Tears.....

? & The Mysterians became well known for their single "96 Tears" which topped the charts in The U.S. in 1966, their follow up singles did not chart so well hence why they are known as one hit wonders.This compilation is an amalgamation of their 2 albums 96 Tears & Action, two non album singles and 2 unreleased tracks, as for the compilation the inner notes are very good with fine detail about the group and as for the music, lyrically and musically it's a bit repetitive hence my 4 Stars.Post Cameo Parkway they signed to a couple of other record labels, released some non album singles, a couple of albums and compilations (re-recordings), overall this is the best one to get since it contains the official original recordings of their songs

A lot of fuss is made of the so-called garage bands of mid-1960s USA. For all their enthusiasm, however, the likes of The Seeds and The Standells were mostly one-trick ponies. This band are the real deal. Gorgeous organ riffs are the icing on a tight, raunchy r&b unit who otherwise seem to have taken their cue partly from British bands such as the Stones. '96 Tears' may be their only well-known song, but they wrote a lot of other good material, which sits alongside the occasional cover version. They had a few surprises up their sleeves too, such as the blues instrumental 'Set Aside' which gives early Manfred Mann a run for their money. Not everything they recorded is here. I recall a fine track from the 'Pebbles' compilations called 'Make You Mine', for instance. The disc does, however, seem to represent what they were doing at their peak. An individual and entertaining collection of tracks.

Thank you.

Listening to CD I was pleasantly surprised by the breadth of musical capability of the band which goes well beyond their classic "96 Tears".Underrated band!

Excellent, very pleased with my purchase.

96 Tears a n all time great

Cracking cd.

Over 40 years after 96 Tears hit the top of the American charts comes the first official Best Of CD from the mighty Question Mark and the Mysterians. Althought several of these tracks have been kicking around for a few years on various 'unofficial' greatest hits packages, or as re-recordings, only now can we hear the true original versions, digitally remastered from the source tapes in the Cameo-Parkway vaults. Just as they deserve to be heard.So what do we get for our money? Basically, everything from the Mysterians' two original studio albums - 96 Tears and Action, plus both sides of the non-LP 45 Do Something To Me b/w Love Me Baby (Cherry July) dating from 1967, together with alternative versions of 96 Tears and Midnight Hour for good measure.And is it worth buying? Absolutely! Even after half-a-lifetime the 27 tracks you get here (their entire Cameo-Parkway output) can still leap out from the speakers and grab you with both hands. And that is because, more than any other band, Question Mark and the Mysterians epitomised the whole 60's garage-rock genre. A bunch of street kids from Detroit who loved making music, lit up the charts for a few gloriously incandescent moments, and, in the process, created arguably the greatest garage-band classic ever! Everything about them - their look, their lyrics, their posturing - screamed ATTITUDE! But they were talented too. While most of their contemporaries relied heavily on cover-versions, the Mysterians wrote almost all of their own material, while creating a organ-based sound that was unmistakable their own. And in the sinuous, swaggering Question Mark they had a fantastic front-man, who was able to project both macho sexuality and romantic vulnerability all at once.Overall then, whether you want to remind yourself of how great it was to be a teenager once upon a time, or explore one of the great seminal influences on everything from 70's punk to the garage-bands of today, go grab yourself a copy of this.You'll be glad you did!

96 Tears, is as i remember it, and you seldom hear anything on the radio these days with such an effect or different sound. The bard was so so, just the one huge hit, bit it will be remembered for all time. It was really interesting to read about the band and where they came from, something one assumes when we are a teenager listening to the radio, but don't really know. Worth the money.

"Ein Stück Musik von Hand gemacht ... " (Zitat : Reinhard Mey)Ach Gottchen - tut das gut : gradlinig gestrickte originelle Musik ohne jede Verzerrung und Elektronik. Hispanic Rock. Eine einprägsame Stimme, Hammond-Orgel, Gitarren, Bass und Drums. Und unkomplizierte Lieder, die ins Ohr gehen. Gute und echte Unterhaltungsmusik. Ich hatte vor langer Zeit die Single "96 Tears" und freue mich, nun eine ganze CD mit 27 Songs ähnlicher Qualität und im selben Stil hören zu können.Ich kann Daniel Zynda nur voll und ganz zustimmen - abgesehen vom Umstand, dass er trotz guter Rezension nur 3 Sterne gibt (???).

Another band that put out a few songs and faded into obscurity. I just remember that one song that I liked. There were a couple of nice covers of songs but not enough to rate it too high.

Misnamed set! I bought this thinking it was a "best of" it's actually the COMPLETE first two albums all original recordings plus a few singles. At last released! Amazing deal!

96 Tears is one of the essential tracks in any 60's Rock N Roll collection. It was one of a kind. And you get a previously unreleased version here I Need Somebody was also a hit.

Antologia imperdibile per chi ama il più genuino garage rock americano anni Sessanta.Contiene tutti i successi del gruppo, compresa la leggendaria "96 Tears".