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Bizarre Records, self-identified simply as Bizarre, was a production company and record label formed for artists discovered by rock musician Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen.
Bizarre was originally formed as a production company. In 1967 Zappa's label, Verve Records, missed the deadline to renew their option on Zappa's recording contract after his second album, Absolutely Free , recorded with his group the Mothers of Invention. This gave Zappa and Cohen the upper hand in negotiating their own production deal with Verve. The purpose of forming his own production company was to give Zappa complete creative control over his work and the works he planned to produce for others.
The first albums associated with Bizarre were released in early 1968. These included We're Only in It for the Money by the Mothers of Invention and Lumpy Gravy , Zappa's first solo album. Other Zappa-related releases were Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968) and the compilation album Mothermania (1969). The company also produced the late 1968 release Sandy's Album Is Here at Last by singer-songwriter Sandra Hurvitz, now better known as Essra Mohawk. These albums were all released by Verve Records with the Bizarre logo added to the label.
In early 1969 Bizarre was established as a record label distributed by the Warner Bros. Records family of labels, which also included Reprise Records. The Bizarre label was formed at the same time as a companion label, Straight Records, also distributed by Warner Bros. When the Bizarre and Straight labels were created, Zappa's intention was to release albums by avant-garde artists on Bizarre, and recordings by more mainstream artists on Straight. The first release in this series was a double album, The Berkeley Concert, by Lenny Bruce. Early US pressings on Bizarre used a distinctive blue label design. Bizarre also released the double album debut of Wild Man Fischer, titled An Evening with Wild Man Fischer , in early 1969.
However, the original Bizarre concept failed to work out as expected due to issues with distribution and management. This led to some very unusual albums on the Straight label especially those by Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper and the GTOs. Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were the only artists who stayed with Bizarre. Zappa released eight of his own albums with and without the Mothers of Invention on Bizarre from 1969 to 1972. The only Zappa project not on Bizarre during this period was the 200 Motels film soundtrack album, released by United Artists Records in 1971.
By 1973 the original Bizarre and Straight distribution contracts with Warner ended. Many Bizarre and Straight recordings were re-issued by Warner and or Reprise. Re-issues in the 1970s featured an orange Reprise Records label sometimes with a Bizarre logo. The same year Zappa and Cohen chose to launch a new company, DiscReet Records, once again distributed by Warner Bros. The Zappa/Mothers titles on Bizarre were available on Reprise until 1981. The back catalog was remastered (some remixed and expanded) by Zappa and leased to Rykodisc for reissue between 1987 and 1993. After Zappa's death in 1993, his widow Gail Zappa's relationship with Ryko soured and she eventually struck a deal with Universal Music Enterprises in 2012 to yet again re-issue the entire back-catalog the following year.
In 1988, Cohen licensed (from Warner Bros.) several of the albums that had been released on Bizarre and Straight and released them through Enigma Retro, including albums by Tim Buckley, Alice Cooper, and Beefheart, and called the label "Bizarre/Straight Records". Bizarre/Straight also released Lenny Bruce's The Berkeley Concert on CD and cassette. After Enigma went out of business in 1991, the label moved to Rhino Records for several years. Several of the albums that had been released on Bizarre/Straight eventually were re-released on Manifesto Records, established in 1995 and run by Evan Cohen, who is Herb Cohen's nephew. An Evening with Wild Man Fischer was finally released on CD in March 2016.
On April 1, 2018, Frank Zappa's official Facebook presence announced an impending reissue of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band's Trout Mask Replica (originally a Straight release), in a deluxe package released by Third Man Records. The press release also mentioned the impending relaunch of the Bizarre imprint, but no further information is currently available on said relaunch.
(1): Reprise Records 2000 Series Numbering [1]
(2): Reprise Records 6000 Series Numbering [1]
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he also produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. His work is characterized by nonconformity, improvisation sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.
Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels.
Lawrence Wayne "Wild Man" Fischer was an American street performer known for offering erratic, a cappella performances of "new kinds of songs" for a dime on the beaches and the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Most of his life was spent homeless or institutionalized, and he later became regarded as "the godfather of outsider music".
James Inkanish, Jr., known professionally as Jimmy Carl Black, was a drummer and vocalist for the Mothers of Invention.
Hot Rats is the second solo album by Frank Zappa, released in October 1969. It was Zappa's first recording project after the dissolution of the original version of the Mothers of Invention. Five of the six songs are instrumental, while "Willie the Pimp" features vocals by Captain Beefheart. In his original sleeve notes, Zappa described the album as "a movie for your ears".
Straight Records, self-identified simply as Straight, was a record label formed in 1969 to distribute productions and discoveries of Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion label, Bizarre Records. Straight and Bizarre were manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by the Warner Bros. Records family of labels, which also included Reprise Records. Straight recordings were distributed in the U.K. by CBS Records.
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets is the fourth album by the Mothers of Invention, and fifth overall by Frank Zappa, released under the alias Ruben and the Jets. Released on December 2, 1968 on Bizarre and Verve Records with distribution by MGM Records, it is a concept album, influenced by 1950s doo-wop and rock and roll. The album's concept deals with a fictitious Chicano doo-wop band called Ruben & the Jets, represented by the cover illustration by Cal Schenkel, which depicts the Mothers of Invention as anthropomorphic dogs. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums: Lumpy Gravy, We're Only in It for the Money and Uncle Meat.
Calvin "Cal" Schenkel is an American illustrator, graphic designer, animator and comics artist, specializing in album cover design.
One Size Fits All is the fourteenth album by the Mothers of Invention, and the twentieth overall album by Frank Zappa, released in June 1975. The album reached #26 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in the United States in August 1975.
Mothermania (1969), subtitled The Best of the Mothers, is a compilation album by the Mothers of Invention. While the songs were previously released on Freak Out!, Absolutely Free and We're Only in It for the Money, it contains unique mixes or edits made specifically for this compilation.
Ian Robertson Underwood is a woodwind and keyboards player, known for his work with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
Elliot Ingber is an American guitarist. In 1966, he joined Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and appeared on their debut album Freak Out! He was fired from the band by Zappa following an incident onstage when he tripped on LSD and was unaware that his amplifier was not switched on. After that he co-founded Fraternity of Man, which released two albums. He then joined Captain Beefheart's Magic Band under the stage name Winged Eel Fingerling, given him by Beefheart. In the sleeve notes to The Spotlight Kid (1972), Beefheart likens Ingber to "a chrome black eyebrow / rolled out real long" and also "a paper brow magnifying glass / fried brown, edge scorched, yoked / like a squeak from a speaker / behind forehead of the time." In 1995, Ingber reformed Fraternity of Man with Lawrence "Stash" Wagner, the original vocalist and co-author of "Don't Bogart that Joint", to record and release a third album released under the Malibu Records label.
Roy Estrada is an American former musician. He is best known for his bass guitar work with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention; for having been a founding member of Little Feat, playing on their first two studio albums; and for being a member of Captain Beefheart's the Magic Band.
Läther is the sixty-fifth official album by Frank Zappa. It was released posthumously as a three-CD set on Rykodisc in 1996. The album's title is derived from bits of comic dialog that link the songs. Zappa also explained that the name is a joke, based on "common bastardized pronunciation of Germanic syllables by the Swiss."
Jeffrey Lael Simmons is an American rock musician, best known as a former member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention.
Arthur Dyer Tripp III is an American retired musician who is best known for his work as a percussionist with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band during the 1960s and 1970s. Thereafter, Tripp retired from music. He attended an accredited chiropractic college in Los Angeles from 1980 through 1983, graduating with his Doctor of Chiropractic degree. He currently practices in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Essra Mohawk was an American singer-songwriter who recorded a dozen albums.
Herbert Cohen was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Judy Henske, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Odetta, Tom Waits, George Duke, the Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie, and many other Los Angeles-based musicians in the 1960s and 1970s.
DiscReet Records, self-identified simply as DiscReet, was a record label founded by Frank Zappa and his then business partner and manager Herb Cohen. The name of the label was a pun derived from disc and the Compatible Discrete 4 process of encoding quadraphonic sound signals into phonograph records.
An Evening with Wild Man Fischer is a 1969 double LP album by Wild Man Fischer. It was produced by Frank Zappa and released on his Bizarre record label.