At Rasputin’s last week, I picked The Stranglers Greatest Hits out of the used bin, kind of on a whim. I only knew one Stranglers song, “Peaches,” which serves as opening theme music for a great movie, Sexy Beast. Fun song that makes me smile + cheap used CD = spontaneous purchase.

Turns out it’s a fun disc, with a neat cover of a song I had not heard in years: “96 Tears,” originally a hit for Question Mark and the Mysterians in 1966. During my childhood, whenever that version of the song came on the car radio, my dad would emit an excited “Ooh!” or “Yes!” and crank the volume up. Great song. Sometimes the painfully simple lyrics work best:

Too many teardrops
For one heart
To be crying

Too many teardrops
For one heart
To carry on