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This album, while being a new recording, will hold you spellbound. From the start you feel that the Mysterians have lost absolutely nothing over the years. If anything 96 tears is slightly better than the original. Cheree is phenomenal and there are superb covers of the Jaynettes '63 hit "Sally Go Round the Roses" and the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction".

It is strange however that having included a crackly vinyl transcript of ? and Co's very first single, that they could not do the same with the original version of the classic "96 Tears". Never mind, if you are too young to remember it you won't miss it after the version presented here.

? himself remains the epitome of rock attitude, maintaining that he was born on Mars, that he lived with dinosaurs, and that he will be singing '96 Tears' in the year 10,000.

With most faded 60s bands, that would be the end of the story. But a link-up with the Collectables record label produced one of the best revivals of recent years. Collectables is best-known for its huge catalogue of of reissues, mostly doo-wop, R&B and all kinds of 60s music. But when they discovered that the rights to the orignal Cameo label lay with ABKCO, after Allen Klein's takeover in 1967, they decided to fund an album of re-recordings. The sessions duly took place over four days in July 1997.

Such re-recordings are normally pale shadows of the originals, to be avoided at all costs, but ? & the Mysterians are the exception to the rule. The core original line-up of ?, Balderrama, Rodriguez, Martinez and Lugo quickly proved that they could still cut killer versions of their songs, often in one take. The 16 track album was supported by live dates that showed they were still one tight and rocking band. They were, and still are, everything that rock should be.