The song that originally put the Sonics on the map is the immortal underground anthem "The Witch." Recorded in July 1964 and driven by a bulldozing volley of drums, a brutally insistent guitar/sax riff and a possessed Gerry Roslie vocal, the song offered a darker, nastier alternative to the relatively well-groomed sounds of the British Invasion. It's prime, primal Sonics mayhem, with a sublimely swaggering B-side in "Like No Other Man."

In their mid-'60s heyday, the Sonics pioneered a wildly aggressive, distortion-laden style that set a widely emulated standard for propulsive punk raunch. Driven by the commanding, blood-curdling howl of Gerry Roslie and the raucous, screaming guitar of Larry Parypa, the Tacoma, Washington quintet pioneered a pummeling, primitive and supremely infectious sound that served as the blueprint for multiple generations of garage, punk and grunge combos, none of whom ever quite managed to equal the Sonics' feral ferocity. In the decades since the Sonics first made their mark, the band's influence and mystique have grown steadily, with their relatively few recordings attaining mythic status amongst lovers of raw, undiluted rock 'n' roll.