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American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Frank Zappa would have been 70-years-old today if he hadn’t died on December 4, 1993 aged just 52. Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 21, 1940 and yes Zappa was his real name, not a stage name.

From an early age, Zappa was influenced by avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse and Anton Webern, but he was also drawn to modern jazz and R&B. His love for R&B was shared by Don Vliet (later known as Captain Beefheart), who Zappa met in high school. The pair would go on to influence each other musically throughout their careers.

Zappa took on drumming duties for bands in his teens, including The Ramblers and The Blackouts, but his interest in the guitar was growing, along with his interest in composing. In the early 1960s, he made a living mainly through writing songs for other artists, including The Penguins, and writing scores for low budget movies. His experimental nature was to the fore in 1963 when he appeared on the Steve Allen show playing a bicycle as a musical instrument.

The turning point for Zappa’s career occurred in 1965 when he became the guitarist for Ray Collins’ R&B band The Soul Giants. Zappa soon took the lead with the band, sharing vocal duties and renaming them The Mothers. In 1966, Bob Dylan’s producer, Tom Wilson, signed the band to Verve Records, who suggested that the band change their name to The Mothers of Invention. The Mothers of Invention’s debut album was “Freak Out“, which incorporated R&B elements with experimental sound collages and doo-wop. Zappa wrote most tracks on the album. The album was a commercial flop, which today would probably have signalled the end of the band’s relationship with the record label, but two albums followed in 1967 – “Absolutely Free” and Zappa’s first solo album “Lumpy Gravy.” The former hit number 41 on the Billboard album chart.

Zappa’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful 1960s album with The Mothers of Invention was “We’re Only in it for the Money“, released in 1968. This reached number 30 on the Billboard albums chart and was also the band’s first album to chart in the UK (#31). The album satirised aspects of 1960s culture, including Flower Power. To ram this point home, the cover parodied the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, with the flowers replaced by vegetables.

The original Mothers of Invention were disbanded by Zappa in 1969 and he released his second solo album, “Hot Rats“, the same year. A new line-up of The Mothers of Invention was formed the following year, but back to the original name “The Mothers.” In the 1970s, Zappa recorded with this new line-up and also with session musicians for solo projects. From 1973-75, he had chart success with “Over-Nite Sensation” (#32), “Apostrophe” (#10) and “One Size Fits All” (#26). He also ended the decade strongly with the best selling album of his career, “Sheik Yerbouti” (#21) and the critically acclaimed “Joe’s Garage” (#27).

Zappa remained very busy in the 1980s with an eclectic mix of projects, the most successful of which were “Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch” (#23) and “The Man from Utopia” (#23). The former included “Valley Girl”, which became his best selling single ever. There were also a number of instrumental projects and it was modern orchestral music that Zappa devoted most of his time to in the last few years of his life.

Let’s close with a track from the 1974 album “Apostrophe.”

Frank Zappa – “Uncle Remus”