Make You Mine
I Love You Baby
? and The Mysterians (pronounced Question Mark and the Mysterians) were certified hep-cats. That's for sure. Cool name. Cool look. Cool sound. The Saginaw, Michigan all latino quintet struck gold with their original composition, the 1966 garage classic, 96 Tears. Two solid albums and a handful of follow-up singles were released in the next two years, but nothing much came of those records. Catching lightning in a bottle twice proved to be difficult.
In 1968 singer Rudy Martinez (aka Question Mark), Eddie Serrato, Frank Lugo, 14-year old Frank Rodriguez on organ and Bobby Balderrama left Cameo-Parkway Records and did a one-off single with Capitol Records. Both sides, Make You Mine and I Love You Baby were composed by frontman, Rudy Martinez. This doesn't sound much like 1968 to me. No heavy guitars, no growling vocals, no extended jam. Nope. This is more like 1965. "Say Man, how's the party and where's my baby?" Its downright quaint.
A-side is my fav "?" tune often omitted from ''best of'' collections. Sounds more like 66/67. Heard it first on Pebbles Vol.8.
ReplyDeletenice.
DeleteMake You Mine is a great pop song! Something Boyce and Hart could've come up with. Wow.
ReplyDeleteI Love You Baby really gets to the gospel quality that infuses some of ?'s music. I never really thought of it as having a gospel quality, and of course the background chatter adds to the effect, but it's there. Where's the Church of ? and whens the next sermon?
Make You Mine is a real pop gem. In one sense it is not very ? and the Mysterians and then in another way, it is exactly like The Mysterians. All of their songs have a straightforward, organ driven pop sensibility. But I think the difference in this one comes down to Rudy's breathy vocal delivery.
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