G major · Camelot 9B · 123 BPM
96 Tears
by ? and the Mysterians
- 123
- BPM
- G major
- Key
- 9B
- Camelot
- 65
- Danceability
- 7
- Acousticness
By October 1966, "96 Tears" had climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and on the RPM 100 in Canada, turning a single cut for a small Texas label into a national phenomenon. The Recording Industry Association of America certified it gold on November 11 of that year, and Billboard later ranked it the number five song of 1966. Rolling Stone placed it at number 213 on its 2010 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Question Mark, the stage name of Rudy Martínez, wrote the song in 1962 in his manager's living room. ? and the Mysterians recorded it in Bay City, Michigan, for Pa-Go-Go, a label owned by Lilly Gonzalez, who financed the band and let them use the studio in her basement. Question Mark had to insist that "96 Tears" appear as the A-side over "Midnight Hour". Once the record began doing well locally, the band brought it to Bob Dell, a radio director in Flint, and requests piled up until play spread into Canada, where Cameo Records picked it up for national distribution.
Reports suggested the song had earlier titles, "Too Many Teardrops" and then "69 Tears", changed because stations might refuse to play it. Question Mark denied this, saying the number 96 held a deep philosophical meaning for him. The follow-up, "I Need Somebody", reached number 22 before the year ended.
96 Tears runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in G major, Camelot 9B, which shares its notes with E minor and mixes cleanly with C major and D major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.