THE BEST OF FRANK ZAPPA

Frank Zappa has such a huge discography that it must be pretty hard to come up with a "Best Of" compilation for him. I'm a fairly new convert to the world of Zappa but this seems to be a pretty good effort to me.

Kicking off with what seems to be one of his most popular numbers, the jazzy instrumental "Peaches en Regalia", we are then taken to the bizarre story of husky wee-wee in "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow". This is the single version which appears to be made up of the first 2 tracks on Apostrophe (though I could be wrong). "Dancin' Fool" is one of my favourite Zappa numbers so far, with its insanely catchy chorus. I won't go through every number as most are well known to Zappa fans, but "Cosmik Debris" is a classic, "Fine Girl" has a nice reggae lilt to it and "Valley Girl", featuring Moon Unit, was one of his biggest hits.

No doubt long-term Zappa fans would quibble about some of the inclusions here, but that is surely unavoidable with someone who has released as many albums as Mr Zappa. As far as I'm concerned it has served its purpose - it's available at a reasonable price and has converted me to the bizarre world of Frank Zappa - and you can't say fairer than that.

"The Best of Frank Zappa" is a compilation album by US experimental rock artist Frank Zappa. The album was released through Rykodisc in November 2004.

"The Best of Frank Zappa" is what I´d characterize as a completely unnecessary release from Rykodisc as all 15 tracks have already appeared on the "Strictly Commercial" compilation album from 1995 (which was also released by Rykodisc). "Strictly Commercial (1995)" even features four additional tracks so why go and purchase an album with exactly the same tracklist minus four tracks?

Judged on it´s own merits "The Best of Frank Zappa" is a pretty good best of compilation containing the most commercially successful material from Frank Zappa´s discography but I can´t rate it without taking into account that those tracks have already been released in almost the exact same form on "Strictly Commercial (1995)". So the choice of tracks deserves a 4 star (80%) rating but the idea to release "The Best of Frank Zappa" when "Strictly Commercial (1995)" already exists is so inappropriate and unnecessary that I can at the most rate "The Best of Frank Zappa" with a 2 star (40%) rating. This is a redundant cash in and deserves to be treated as such.

I could write a pun here about these tracks being 'strictly commercial', but apparently there is actually another Frank Zappa compilation with that title (and apparently it has the same track- listing as this one plus four........ making me and 5 other people, complete idiots).

Anyway, these tracks really are rather on the commercial side of Zappa, and that isn't surprising because it was released by a record company, the operative word being company. Most of them are pretty good though, and can be seen as a light introduction to the music of this amazing musician, which is so vastly abundant that it would be impossible to do a compilation featuring songs from every one of his albums. Perhaps then, it would be more honest to call this package 'The Best of Frank Zappa's Singles and Commerical Album Tracks'.

There is one song from 'Hot Rats', one from 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh', three from 'Over-Nite Sensation', two from 'Apostrophe', one from 'One Size Fits All', one from 'Bongo Fury', one from 'Zoot Allures', two from 'Sheik Yerbouti', one from 'Joe's Garage', one from 'Tinsel Town Rebellion' and one from 'Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch'. So that covers the 70's quite well but ignores the 60's material and features nothing in the jazz-rock/avant-garde vein that Zappa is known for. Incidentally, the best tracks are loaded up to the front of the album, with the only later highlights being 'Joe's Garage' and the excellent live closer 'The Muffin Man'.

Buy this if, for whatever reason, 'Strictly Commercial' isn't available to you. Otherwise, buy that album..... or buy a more comprehensive box set......... or just buy some Frank Zappa albums! Start with 'Apostophe' and work backwards (if you like jazz) or forwards (if you like silly humour).