? & the Mysterians 1 Artistfacts

1962-
? (Rudy Martínez)Vocals1964-
Bobby BalderramaLead guitar1962-
Robert MartínezDrums1962-
Larry BorjasRhythm guitar1962-1966
Frankie RodríguezKeyboards1964-
Mel SchacherBass1966
Frank LugoBass1966-
? and the Mysterians are a garage band formed in 1962 in Michigan by three offspring of migrant farmers: Bobby Balderrama (lead guitar), Larry Borjas (rhythm guitar) and Robert Martinez (drums).
The band started out playing instrumentals by the Ventures and Duane Eddy. Then, when the British Invasion materialized, they decided they needed a vocalist.

"We'd been together maybe a year and a half and one night we're doing a gig and someone came up and said 'You guys need a singer you can't just play instrumentals all night,'" Balderrama recalled to Mojo magazine, "So I told the guys and Robert says, 'Well, my brother (Rudy) sings and he dances really good, like Mick Jagger."

"We had a farm at Bay City, Michigan, with a double car garage where we went to practice," he continued. "When we met Rudy, he was kind of an introvert. He was also a lot older than we were and already was working full time. I was still in ninth grade. We learned 'Satisfaction' and we tried it with him, and he did sound like Mick Jagger. He didn't dance or nothing, but he kind of blew us away."
The band took their name from the 1957 Japanese science fiction film The Mysterians. "We gotten a name when we were watching Japanese movies on a Saturday afternoon," said Balderrama. "One had these invaders From Mars called the Mysterians, and Larry said, 'Hey, good name for the band.' Then our manager gave us a letter each for a name – I was X and Rudy was ? because, said the manager, 'He's mysterious, he wears sunglasses all the time.'"
Their big break came in 1966 with the release of "96 Tears." This electrifying and raw garage rock anthem, fuelled by its iconic organ riff and catchy lyrics, skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and became a defining song of the era.

"We recorded '96 Tears' in a little four-track studio in this guy's recreation room where he turned his closet into his control room," recalled Balderrama. "I was more into instrumentals, and I didn't think it was gonna make it. A girl I knew said she hated it, so I said to ?, 'Maybe we should go with the other side' (Midnight Heart). He goes, 'Nope, 96 Tears is gonna make it. And he was right."
The follow-up single, "I Need Somebody," reached #22 on the Hot 100, but the band struggled to replicate the success of "96 Tears."

"We'd recorded our third album, which never came out in Ray Charles' studio in California," said Balderrama. "It was tough. The band's popularity had dropped – this was when Cream were kicking butt, and Jimi Hendrix and all these bands were playing songs for 15 minutes. Our style kind of went out."
Though they disbanded in the late 1960s, ? and the Mysterians regrouped and released additional material over the years.