Product Description

Even though Zappa purists tend to loathe this splendid 19-track compilation, there is no better introduction to the wild and wonderful world of Frank Zappa than STRICTLY COMMERCIAL. Throughout his long, celebrated career, Zappa essentiallymaintained two separate personas. At one end of the spectrum, he was a wicked satirist who performed such bizarre rock ditties as "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" and "Dancin' Fool". On the other end, he was a masterful composer and guitarist who created fascinating fusion instrumentals like "Peaches EnRegalia" and even full-scale symphonic works.
While you don't get any examples of Zappa's more elaborate musical pieces on STRICTLY COMMERCIAL, what you do get is track after track of clever, immaculately performed rock. Songs range from "Trouble Every Day", a 1966 blues-rock recording with The Mothers of Invention, to "Valley Girl", the 1982 hit single that Zappa recorded with his daughter Moon Unit on vocals. While the sheer volume of Zappa's work makes it impossible toinclude every career highpoint on a single disc collection,it's hard to imagine how you could create a better Zappa compilation than STRICTLY COMMERCIAL.

Track Listing

1. Peaches En Regalia
2. Don't Eat The Yellow Snow (single version)
3. Dancin' Fool
4. San Ber'dino
5. Dirty Love
6. My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
7. Cosmik Debris
8. Trouble Every Day
9. Disco Boy
10. Fine Girl
11. Sexual Harassment In The Workplace
12. Let's Make The Water Turn Black
13. I'm The Slime
14. Joe's Garage (single version)
15. Bobby Brown Goes Down
16. Montana (single version)
17. Valley Girl
18. Be In My Video
19. Muffin Man

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13155 in Music
• Released on: 2002-04-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Frank Zappa 101. As close as anyone has come to a definitive greatest hits set, Strictly Commercial manages to encapsulate much of a career that deliberately defied any such attempts. This is the most accessible single collection of Zappa's music available, containing familiar ditties such as "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow", "Joe's Garage" and the radio hit "Valley Girl". Those skeptical of his guitar work will most certainly find the included selections, "Sexual Harassment in the Workplace," "I'm the Slime" and "Muffin Man" to be educational. Excellent for whetting the appetites of potential Zappa fanatics. --Andrew Boscardin

Customer Reviews

Zapped!
Having just read the retrospective of Zappa's work in Mojo magazine I thought i'd give this cd a try to see if it was as good as everybody was intimating.
My tastes in music range from Punk rock through to Heavy metal and progressive rock so I feared that this cd might be too Jazzy for my liking.How wrong could I be? Every single track here is a tour de force of exemplary musicianship coupled with great humour.
For me the strangest thing I can say about this collection is that I really cannot put my finger on why I love it I just do!
Im so impressed by the production of this cd,the clarity of the myriad of instruments is astonishing and i'm no audiophile i've just played it on my bog standard in-car cd player.
Trying to single out any stand out tracks is exceedingly difficult as the tracks are all so different but I do especially like the doo wop influenced " Joe's Garage" and the awesome guitar wig out of the "Muffin Man" which has an hilarious spoken word intro.
All in all this is a great introduction to a great great talent whose love for music shines through in every track and best of all it's inspired me to get hold some more of his work.

Rykodisc did a very good job here
Before this CD came out I did often wonder which songs would make a proper "best of Frank Zappa" CD. I bought Strictly Commercial at first sight although I already had the music on the old albums and I wasn't disappointed. Rykodisc have gathered together all the "top list" songs here (if Top 40 only had been hip enough). The exception may be Sexual Harassment. They should have chosen I Don't Wanna Get Drafted instead. (The 1980 single mix). It was actually on the charts here in Sweden. I especially appreciate the single edits of some songs, Joe's Garage for instance. Strictly Commercial is a perfect young person's guide to FZ.

Those new to Zappa, buy it
If you are new to Zappa, buy it now. An awesome collection attempting to condense the enormous diversity and sheer amount of work FZ has created in his career, and does so as well as could be expected. From the great humour of "Bobby Brown" and "Valley Girl" you would be forgiven for thinking FZ did not take his music too seriously, but then listen to the genius at work in "Sexual Harassment In The Workplace" and the "Muffin Man" and have this opinion quashed. As the title of one of FZ's albums asks, "Does humour have a place in music?", this album proves the answer to be a resounding yes.