(Credits: Far Out / Album Cover)
Sun 8 February 2026 14:00, UK
Rudy Martinez, aka Question Mark, and each of his bandmates in the garage rock outfit known as Question Mark and the Mysterians, were the sons of Mexican migrant workers who’d settled in and around Bay City, Michigan, in the 1940s.
It was a cultural clash that clearly affected Martinez as a boy, as he would spend most of his adult life declaring that he was actually born on the planet Mars, and thus could never really fit in anywhere. Martian or not, Martinez did at least find himself a tribe of like-minded humans in the early 1960s, as he formed a rock ‘n’ roll band in Bay City with several Mexican-American pals, all inspired by the new trends in surf rock.
“We started in ‘62 just like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles,” Martinez told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1998, “Except we didn’t know what was happening. [Those bands] didn’t know us, and we didn’t know them. But one song can make a big difference, and they know us now.”
That “one song” was the 1966 single ‘96 Tears’; easily the biggest hit in the short career of Question Mark and the Mysterians, powered by one of the most iconic keyboard lines in rock ‘n’ roll history.
At the time of the song’s recording, the Mysterians’ line-up featured Martinez on vocals, Bobby Balderrama on guitar, Frank Lugo on bass, Eddie Serrato on bass, and Lil’ Frank Rodriguez behind the distinctive Vox Continental organ.
“We were rehearsing, and Lil’ Frank came up with this riff,” Balderrama said in 1998, recounting the magic moment that ‘96 Tears’ was born, “I began playing these two chords over and over, and out of the blue, Question Mark [Martinez] started singing these lyrics.”
Question Mark and the Mysterians, 1960s. (Credits: Far Out / Question Mark and the Mysterians)
“The song just popped into my head,” Martinez confirmed, “It was very profound”.
The hypnotic sound of Rodriguez’s keyboard, combined with Martinez’s cool-guy vocal and Balderrama’s proto-punk guitar, quickly made ‘96 Tears’ a sensation on Detroit radio, leading to a national record deal with Cameo Records out of Philadelphia. By October of 1966, it was the number one single on the US Billboard singles chart, a unique accomplishment for an upstart Mexican-American band performing in the midst of the British invasion.
Unfortunately, the introduction of Question Mark and the Mysterians to the wider world was also their swan song in some ways. While the band did manage a few more minor hits, including ‘Can’t Get Enough of You, Baby’, they fell victim to the same pitfalls that short-circuited many other promising bands of their era.
“We had a lot of problems with our recording company,” Martinez said, “We were naive, and we trusted everyone”. Subsequent debates over cash flow and frustration with trying to write another hit led to mounting tension among the band. “A couple of guys got married,” Martinez added, “and soon their wives wanted them home”.
And so, by 1968, the ride was already over, and Question Mark and the Mysterians stopped recording. Their hit single, however, only seemed to grow in its legendary status, as artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin, The Stranglers, and Primal Scream took their turns covering it over the next 30 years.
“We brought rock ‘n’ roll back to America after the British invasion,” Martinez said with pride, “We were like a bright star exploding into space”.
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