Featured In
ALBUMLive At The Whisky A Go Go 1968Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
Albums by Frank Zappa
ALBUMFunky NothingnessFrank Zappa
ALBUMMudd ClubFrank Zappa
ALBUMWaka/WazooFrank Zappa
ALBUMZAPPA ’75: Zagreb/LjubljanaFrank Zappa
ALBUMZappa / Erie (Live)Frank Zappa
ALBUMThe Mothers 1971 (Super Deluxe)Frank Zappa & The Mothers
ALBUMThe Mothers 1970 (Live)Frank Zappa & The Mothers
ALBUMThe Hot Rats SessionsFrank Zappa
ALBUMMeat Light: The Uncle Meat Project / ObjectFrank Zappa
ALBUMThe Crux Of The BiscuitFrank Zappa
Frank Zappa's Popular Music Videos
Valley Girl
Frank Zappa & Moon Zappa
Mudd Club (Live At Mudd Club, NYC, May 8, 1980)
Frank Zappa
Valley Girl (Flux Pavilion Remix)
Frank Zappa & Moon Zappa
Artist Playlists
Frank Zappa Essentials
Meet the man who turned rock inside out and found it sounded better that way.
Frank Zappa: Influences
The eccentric rocker worshipped classical, doo-wop, and fusion.
Inspired by Frank Zappa
His eccentric genius cuts across heavy metal, alt-rock, and prog.
Frank Zappa: Deep Cuts
His musical lunacy—and capacity for crudeness—knew no bounds.
Artist Biography
Singer, guitarist, and composer Frank Zappa got his start writing avant-garde performance pieces for his high school orchestra in the ’50s, before turning to rock.
∙ Zappa and future bandmate Ray Collins cowrote “Memories of El Monte,” which became a doo-wop hit for The Penguins in 1963.
∙ In 1966, his band The Mothers of Invention released the satirical concept record Freak Out, rock’s first-ever two-disc debut album.
∙ The Mothers’ 1971 performance at the Montreux Casino inspired Deep Purple to write one of rock’s greatest anthems, “Smoke On the Water.”
∙ 1974’s Apostrophe (’)—featuring the Pop hit “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow”—peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart, giving the Mothers their only Gold record.
∙ “Valley Girl,” which Zappa recorded with his 14-year-old daughter, Moon, in 1982, was his first and only Top 40 hit.
∙ He won his first of two Grammy Awards in 1987, when Jazz From Hell was named Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
∙ In 1995, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Lou Reed, and his daughter, Moon, delivered the acceptance speech.
∙ Former New York Philharmonic director and composer Pierre Boulez released the critically acclaimed Boulez Conducts Zappa in 1998.
Hometown
Baltimore, MD, United States
Genre
Rock