Full performer name: Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention.
Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention: Frank Zappa (vocals, guitar, piano); Jimmy Carl Black (vocals, trumpet, drums); Roy Estrada (vocals, electric bass); Billy Mundi (vocals, drums); Ian Underwood (woodwinds, piano); Bunk Gardner (woodwinds); Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood (soprano & baritone saxophones); Suzy Creamcheese, Dick Barber.
Additional personnel includes: Gary Kellgren (vocals); Eric Clapton.
Recorded between August and October, 1967.
Originally released on Verve.
The early Zappa albums were treasured by the few and totally misunderstood by the majority. The brilliant SGT. PEPPER satire of the cover should have garnered extra sales, but no. Zappa's scathing wit homed in on modern middle-class America and West Coast hippies. The album offered 19 vignettes incorporating avant garde, doo-wop, some relatively conventional pop music and a lot of hilarious dialogue that was so hip it has never dated. Zappa made us confront the obvious, and the results were alarming. These issues are best demonstrated on "What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body," "Bow Tie Daddy," and "The Idiot Bastard Son."