Believe it or not, while I do not recall hearing this in the 60s (I know I did), my first conscious exposure to this song came from the 1985 film "Cat's Eye". The song was played during the scene where these goons put a barefoot woman on a fenced-in electric grid and made her jump from the electric shocks. It was part of an anti-smoking deterrent...for the husband of the woman. If you haven't seen the movie, it's really fun, and twisted.
I agree 200%. Except I'm not apologizing for it. "Semi-professional?" I honestly don't give a ****. Not everything has to sound like the Association. Seriously, 1966 was when the whole garage-rock thing was peaking (although it didn't have a name then), and it's good to see a genuine rock & roll record shoot straight up to Number One.
I wasn't born yet in 1966. My first exposure to "96 Tears" came via this TV commercial in 1973. It's the first thing you hear when the commercial starts.
I felt the need to explicate my reasons for liking it because that guy who hated Hanky Panky is going to swoop in any minute to tell everyone what they like is garbage. I think his word was "abomination," to which I'd say, "we're not in church."
This rocks a circus vibe and manages to sound cool. I like the way this year offered a variety of choices. Nods to the recent past to new sounds from old and new friends to the seeds of a new kind of psychedelia that would bloom in the coming year.
? are vastly underrated! 96 Tears is a gem of a song but grab yourself a comp of theirs and you will find many more gems in the same vein.
Amen! Honestly, I knew "96 Tears" was coming up soon, and after seeing the mixed reception "Hanky Panky" and the early Beatles/DC 5 got ("but, gee, it's so simple and not as complex as Petula Clark"), I wanted to head off the haters at the pass. LOL! All jokes aside (just kidding, folks), the Detroit area had a fertile rock scene in the sixties, via Bob Seger & the Last Heard, the Rationals, Terry Knight & the Pack and others. It was good to see some of the artists break out beyond the regional mode, like Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels (NYC-recorded, but still Motor City-identified) and ? & the Mysterians.
Reach Out, I'll be There is another great Four Tops song. Those guys were awesome. But like Sugar Pie Honey Bunch, they have overplayed this song on oldies radio to the point where I just don't appreciate it anymore. Before that overexposure, it was one of my very favorites. We won't be seeing them in this thread again, so I thought I'd post another one of their more obscure songs I like. If I had to pick my favorite of their numbers, including their big hits, I'd go with Bernadette or their great cover of Walk Away, Renee. But instead, I'll choose another more obscure but still really fantastic number. This one used to get some play on the oldies station I listened to as a kid. Very funky and different from some of their more well known stuff.
96 Tears If you want a two minute and change explanation of what garage rock was all about, you can't do better than this song. That organ is just crazy! He pounds those same two chords over and over until I enter an altered state. Sublime! It sounds like it was recorded in someone's garage with a paper bag over the mikes in about ten minutes, and is all the better for that. Take one and done! And the lyrics sound literally like he made them up on the spot, especially the middle part, where it seems like he's searching to find words to keep it going. I also wonder how on Earth they got away with: I'll be on top/ You'll be right down there, looking up I mean, the freaking FBI ended up investigating Louie Louie for possibly obscene lyrics (which turned out to be incoherent mumbling), yet here is an unambiguous portrayal of, uh, shall we say young love? I don't think "?" ever was similarly investigated, but he's mysterious, so who knows? ? and the gang had five charting singles, one other of which, I Need Somebody, cracked the top 40 (it got to 22). But there were many other garage bands who never had their big moment in the sun. Being from the Pacific Northwest, I have a soft spot for the Sonics, a super great garage band from glamorous Tacoma, Washington. Strychnine is probably their uber-punk moment, but I love the following song, too, and the video someone created for it is off the charts crazy. This is 1965? Yes it is! Psycho! (Kurt Cobain had this to say about the Sonics, and it is spot on: "I, I have to admit... The Sonics recorded very, very cheaply on a two track you know, and they just used one microphone over the drums, and they got the most amazing drum sound I've ever heard. Still to this day, it's still my favorite drum sound. It sounds like he's hitting harder than anyone I've ever known.")
"And when the morning comes, I'll be on top" ... what do you think they were doing all night? At the very least it's more possibly sexual than, say, "I ran gonna tang my baby ah ho" or whatever the Kingsmen are saying in Louie Louie....
I'm not really a fan of 96 Tears, although it's not the worst song of the year or anything, not even the worst no. 1 of the year. It's competently done and has it charms I suppose, but there were just so many brilliant recordings from that year that towered over it, which didn't make it to no. 1. I guess that would be me! I checked, and I have not used either "garbage" or "abomination" in this thread. However, I did say "monstrosity" once ... Everybody says what they like and don't, and no one should apologize for it. I haven't criticized anyone directly so far as I know. It's not really the proper thing to do anyway. If someone comes back and says something I dislike is a great song, I don't argue with them; I've already had my say. As a rule ...
I think it's more like the lyrics to "Under My Thumb", where the woman will be sorry she did the guy wrong. He's gonna leave her that night and be on top, meaning he's going to get over her, and she's gonna be looking up regretting what she did. She's gonna cry 96 tears.
I'm not slagging WCWIO, it's a great song, but to me, it feels somewhat well-mannered and unexciting. It doesn't rock, it's not trippy, there isn't much urgency in it. It's a perfectly well-made, very nice little number, but it just doesn't "wow" me the way a lot of Beatles tunes do.
Is it me, or is thread participation dropping on this thread? I thought you all were waiting for the rock era. We're in it now.
Having fun following along & keeping a list of the Billboard #1s in my collection (as I see them listed in the thread). I'm up to 26 of them (so far). Darryl
I just joined a couple weeks ago when I found it, and thought it moved rather slowly. Hope it doesn't die.
For some reason I associate 96 Tears with Winchester Cathedral. Those were both in the Top 40 at the same time, but so were so many other classic '66 hits. Back then I actually liked WC better. Still not a huge fan of 96 Tears, but I do appreciate it more now.
OK, that's legit. I'm probably wrong, but I read it somewhat differently. I see it as the singer having a fantasy moment where he's imagining that he is having relations with the woman who broke his heart. But at the end of his dream moment, he admits, I'm gonna get you but I know now/ I'll just cry, cry, I'll just cry The lyrics, as I said before, are a bit all over the place, so it's hard to know what he really means. And now it's official, I have spent more time thinking about the words to this song than the writer did.
I read it to mean that he's gonna get her by finding a new woman to take her place. I understand your position because just a couple of weeks ago, I was saying that I thought a song had sexual overtones and others argued with me and said they don't. I just don't remember what the song in question was. That's what makes lyrics fun, having our own interpretations. That's one reason I sometimes don't want to know the legit story behind a song. I don't want it to ruin my enjoyment of it, however wrong I may be.
