One Size Fits All (Frank Zappa album)

One Size Fits All
Studio album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
Released June 25, 1975
Recorded August 27, 1974–
April 1975
Studio Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles, CA;
Caribou Ranch, Nederland, CO; and
Paramount Studios, Los Angeles, CA
Genre Progressive rock, jazz fusion, hard rock
Length 42:55
Label DiscReet
Producer Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa chronology
Roxy & Elsewhere
#19 (1974)Roxy & ElsewhereString Module Error: Match not found		 One Size Fits All
#20 (1975)		 Bongo Fury
#21 (1975)Bongo FuryString Module Error: Match not found
Singles from One Size Fits All
  1. "Du Bist Mein Sofa"
    Released: 1975
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Kerrang![2]
Robert ChristgauC+[3]

One Size Fits All is a rock album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, released in June 1975. It is the tenth and last studio album of the band. A special four-channel quadraphonic version of the album was advertised but not released.[4]

Band

The album features the summer/fall 1974 lineup of the Mothers of Invention, with George Duke, Chester Thompson, Ruth Underwood, Tom Fowler and Napoleon Murphy Brock. One track features bassist James "Birdlegs" Youman, who stood in for Fowler when the bassist broke his hand while on tour.

Album content

The album features one of Zappa's most complex tracks, "Inca Roads". One of Zappa's heroes, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, guests on two tracks (flambe vocals on the out-choruses of "San Ber'dino" and "Andy").[5] Captain Beefheart also appears under a pseudonym.

Zappa stated in the liner notes that the album was recorded simultaneously with their next album, but this "next album" would be replaced by Bongo Fury, consisting mostly of live recordings with Beefheart from May 1975. From comments Zappa made in radio interviews in April 1975, it seems likely that the unreleased next album would have included "Greggery Peccary," which first appeared three years later on Studio Tan.

Releases

Early U.S. LP pressings of One Size Fits All are notable in that they have the catalog number "BS 2879" inscribed - and crossed out - in the runoff matrix, indicating that at one point One Size Fits All was (perhaps mistakenly) planned to be released on Warner Bros. Records, whose Reprise Records subsidiary distributed Zappa's DiscReet Records label. The album was ultimately released on DiscReet with a catalog number in Reprise's sequence, DS 2216. Warner Bros. did not reassign the number BS 2879 to another album.

One Size Fits All was first released on CD by Rykodisc in 1988. It was reissued by Rykodisc in 1995 with restored cover art, but with identical sound quality. In 1996 a 24-karat gold Au20 edition was released with significantly improved sound quality. In 2012 it was remastered and reissued yet again by the Universal Music Group under the Zappa Records imprint.

Track listing

All songs written by Frank Zappa.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Inca Roads"8:45
2."Can't Afford No Shoes"2:38
3."Sofa No. 1"2:39
4."Po-Jama People"7:39
Side two
No.TitleLength
5."Florentine Pogen"5:27
6."Evelyn, A Modified Dog"1:04
7."San Ber'dino"5:57
8."Andy"6:04
9."Sofa No. 2"2:42

Personnel

Musicians

Production staff

  • Kerry McNabb – engineer, remixing
  • Cal Schenkel – design, illustrations, paintings
  • Mike D. Stone of the Record Plant – engineer
  • Michael Braunstein – engineer
  • Unity – assistant engineer
  • Dick Barber – assistant engineer, assistant
  • Gary O. – engineer
  • Ferenc Dobronyi – design
  • J.E. Tully – design
  • Coy Featherstone – assistant engineer
  • Paul Hof – assistant engineer, assistant
  • Matti Laipio – voices, assistant engineer
  • Bill Romero – voices, assistant engineer
  • Richard "Tex" Abel – assistant engineer, assistant
  • Jukka – engineer

Charts

Album

Year Chart Peak
1975 Billboard 200 26[6]

References

  1. ↑ Couture, François (2011). "One Size Fits All - The Mothers of Invention | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  2. ↑ Henderson, Paul (28 January 1989). "Slippery Customers". Kerrang!. No. 223. p. 18. ISSN 0262-6624.
  3. ↑ Christgau, Robert (2011). "Robert Christgau: CG: Artist 4155". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  4. ↑ "Unreleased Records". www.lukpac.org. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  5. ↑ http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/One_Size_Fits_All.html
  6. ↑ "Charts and Awards for One Size Fits All". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
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