Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

"Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" is a song written by Frank Zappa and first recorded and released by Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention on their 1968 album "We're Only In It For The Money". The song was originally recorded as an instrumental by Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention in 1961 at Pal Recording Recording Studio. The first instance of lyrics being written for the melody is on a 1965 demo tape by The Mothers Of Invention on which the song is recorded as "I'm So Happy I Could Cry". The lyrics to this version were a somewhat serious and very sincere love song from a man to a "...girl he left behind him when he went out to see this great, big world..." This version, released on the posthumous Frank Zappa album "Joe's Corsage", also contains a bridge section that is not included in any other version of the song, instrumental or vocal. Three years later, in 1968, Zappa removed the bridge section and wrote entirely new lyrics to the tune and it was finally re-recorded by The Mothers Of Invention as "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" for the album "We're Only In It for The Money". The song would be known by this title from that point on. The lyrics to this version are a satirical look at social classes and the hippie subculture of the sixties. The song was once again re-recorded by Frank Zappa for his album "Lumpy Gravy" under the shortened title "Take Your Clothes Off", this time in its more common instrumental form. Most live performances of the song by Frank Zappa are instrumental jams.

The song appears on the following Frank Zappa albums:

#We're Only In It For The Money (Original version. First version released. Length of 1:34)
#Lumpy Gravy (Instrumental. Length of 1:52)
#The Lost Episodes (Instrumental. Length of 3:51)
# (Live version with vocals. Length of 2:02)
#You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 (Instrumental jam. Length of 3:46)
#Joe's Corsage (As "I'm So Happy I Could Cry". Length of 2:43)