The Stranglers

The Stranglers are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene.

Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning four decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" bands to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s. Beginning life as the Guildford Stranglers on 11 September 1974 in Guildford, Surrey, they originally built a following within the mid-1970s pub rock scene. While their aggressive, no-compromise attitude identified them as one of the instigators of the UK punk rock scene that followed, their idiosyncratic approach rarely followed any single musical genre and the group went on to explore a variety of musical styles, from new wave, art rock and gothic rock through the sophisticated pop of some of their 1980s output.

They had major mainstream success with their single "Golden Brown". Their other hits include "No More Heroes", "Peaches", "Always the Sun" and "Skin Deep".

The Stranglers (album)

The Stranglers is a compilation album by The Stranglers.

Track listing

96 Tears

"96 Tears" is a song recorded by the American garage rock band, Question Mark & the Mysterians (also known as "? and the Mysterians"), in 1966. In October of that year, it was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and on the RPM 100 in Canada.Billboard ranked the record as the number five song for the year 1966. It is ranked number 213 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. On November 11, 1966 the single was certified as gold by the RIAA.

The song was written by Question Mark (Rudy Martinez) in 1962 in his manager's living room, under the name "Too Many Teardrops" and then "69 Tears". Upon changing the name, in fear of loss of radio play, it was recorded in Bay City, Michigan. At first, Question Mark had to insist that "96 Tears" be the A-side over "Midnight Hour". Once the issue was settled, the band recorded the single for the small Pa-Go-Go label, owned by Lilly Gonzalez. She backed the band financially, and allowed access to her personal studio in her basement. When it began doing well locally, the band took a recording to Bob Dell, the radio director in Flint, Michigan. The song became the most requested, and wider radio play spread into Canada where it was picked up by Cameo Records for national distribution.

96 Tears (album)

96 Tears is the debut album by the American garage rock band Question Mark & the Mysterians, released in 1966. A re-recorded version was eventually released on the Collectables label in 1997. It peaked at #66 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart.

First pressings had a misprinted Side 2 label listing the last track as "Tears" instead of "96 Tears".

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Rudy Martinez, except where noted. 

Personnel

Charts

References