The group is best known for their single release, containing the songs "Tryin' to Mess My Mind" and "She's the One," which have become cult classics in the garage rock musical genre, and are included on several compilations.
[3] In 1967, while the Illusions were playing a show at the Mardi Gras Bowling Alley, James Migliaccio, the manager of the establishment and the owner of the small Flambeau Records label, proposed funding for a single.
The group's two original compositions, "Tryin' to Mess My Mind," distinctive for Scott Sherman's wailing vocals and its organ-driven protopunk instrumental backing, as well as "She's the One," were recorded at Cosimo Matassa's Jazz City Studio on Camp Street, and are both considered garage rock classics.
In September 1967, the single was released under the name Dr. Spec's Optical Illusion, as suggested by R&B singer Joyce Harris to sound more psychedelic, and charted quickly around the region.
[4][7] However, the band members' parents refused to agree to a recording contract with Migiliacco and the single's distribution was abruptly halted.