Zappa vs. Mainstream Radio

Given Frank Zappa's penchant for making unconventional music, it is no surprise that he never scored any smash hit singles on mainstream radio. This didn't stop him from attempting, however. He described the situation during a 1968 concert in Boston (I've added boldface type for emphasis):

Now we got desperate a few months ago and uh, because we thought nobody liked us. And uh, we're also pissed off at the fact that people won't play our records on the radio, and we didn't know whether or not it was 'cause our music was crappy or because somebody really knew what the words to the songs meant... However boys and girls, the people who run the radio stations are on the watch, you know, for our records, when they come in as soon as somebody sends a single to the radio station with our name on it they either melt it, break it, stomp on it or send it in an envelope directly back to the record company from which it came with a threatening note. But we said, "What the heck? Why can't we be just like other teen-age rock & roll bands -- outside of the fact that we're all over thirty -- and go and cut a single record and try and get the sucker on the radio?" So what we did was we went into a professional recording studio in New York City in the middle of the night for two nights in a row and also a Saturday afternoon for mixing and cranked out two miserable teen-age type records with words that couldn't possibly offend anybody and uh they're reasonably singable -- by any group other than the Mothers Of Invention -- and uh, they're teen-age boy-girl type songs. And so they're being released this week. I would expect to be able to add these to our list of smash flops very shortly.

- Frank Zappa, The Ark, 1968

The single Zappa was referring to was "My Guitar"/"Valarie," and it did in fact tank as he had anticipated - though not in the form he had anticipated. "Valarie" would never be released as a B-side - "My Guitar" would be accompanied by "Dog Breath" on 45. Later, a reworked version of "My Guitar" would appear on Zappa's classic 1970 album, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, as "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama." "Valarie," in the meantime, would appear unaltered as a bookend to the heavily instrumental Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970).

Anyone wishing to get on my good side can do so by purchasing me a pristine copy of this 45.

Today's post is the original single version of "My Guitar," which is radically different from the album version of the song. First of all, the tempo is slower. The horns that characterize the Weasels version are absent. Zappa's guitar is also featured in more of a prominent role on the 45 version. Overall, the single version sounds a lot more like standard 60s pop than the album version. No surprise, given that this is what Zappa was going for.

My Guitar