Bizarre Records

History

Bizarre started out as a production company rather than a record label. The opportunity arose in 1967 when Verve Records let the option on Frank Zappa’s contract expire after his second album with the Mothers of Invention, Absolutely Free. That mistake gave Zappa and his business partner Herb Cohen the leverage to negotiate a production deal with Verve on their own terms. Zappa’s main goal in setting up his own company was to have total creative control over his own music and any projects he wanted to produce for other artists. The first records tied to Bizarre came out in early 1968. Among them were the Mothers of Invention’s We’re Only in It for the Money and Zappa’s first solo effort, Lumpy Gravy. Two more Zappa-related titles followed: Cruising with Ruben & the Jets in 1968 and the compilation Mothermania in 1969. Bizarre also produced Sandy’s Album Is Here at Last, a late 1968 release by singer-songwriter Sandra Hurvitz, who later became known as Essra Mohawk. All these albums were put out by Verve, but they carried the Bizarre logo on the label. In early 1969, Bizarre became a full-fledged record label, distributed through the Warner Bros. Records group, which also included Reprise Records. At the same time, a companion label called Straight Records was launched, also distributed by Warner Bros. Zappa planned to use Bizarre for avant-garde artists and Straight for more mainstream acts. The very first release on the new Bizarre label was Lenny Bruce’s double album The Berkeley Concert. Early American pressings of Bizarre records featured a distinctive blue label. Another early Bizarre release was the double album debut of Wild Man Fischer, An Evening with Wild Man Fischer, which came out in early 1969. Things did not go according to plan, however. Distribution and management problems caused the original concept to fall apart. As a result, some very unusual albums ended up on the Straight label instead, most notably those by Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper, and the GTOs. Only Zappa and the Mothers of Invention remained with Bizarre. Between 1969 and 1972, Zappa put out eight albums on Bizarre, both with and without the Mothers. The sole Zappa project from that period that did not appear on Bizarre was the soundtrack for the film 200 Motels, which was released by United Artists Records in 1971.