- One Size Fits All
-
This article is about the Frank Zappa album. For the phrase, see One size fits all. For the Pink Cream 69 album, see One Size Fits All (Pink Cream 69 album).
One Size Fits All 
Studio album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention Released June 25, 1975 Recorded Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles; Caribou Ranch, Nederland, CO; and Paramount Studios, Los Angeles,
August 1974 - April 1975Genre Jazz fusion, hard rock, progressive rock Length 42:55 Label DiscReet Producer Frank Zappa Frank Zappa chronology Roxy & Elsewhere
(1974)One Size Fits All
(1975)Bongo Fury
(1975)Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Allmusic 
[1]Piero Scaruffi (6/10)[2] Robert Christgau (C+) [3] One Size Fits All is a 1975 rock album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. It is the last Zappa album to be released with the subheading of "Mothers of Invention". A special four-channel Quadraphonic version of the album was prepared and advertised, but not released. [4]
The album features the final version of The Mothers of Invention, with George Duke, Chester Thompson, Ruth Underwood, Tom Fowler and Napoleon Murphy Brock. Zappa continued to tour and record, oftentimes with members of previous "Mothers of Invention" lineups.
The album itself features one of Zappa's most complex and well-known tracks, "Inca Roads". One of Zappa's heroes, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, guests on two tracks.
Early U.S. LP pressings of One Size Fits All are particularly notable, for two reasons:
- Many early copies contain a skip during "Inca Roads" at approximately 4:40 into the track. This error was a manufacturing defect not caught during the test pressing stage. The album was recalled after the mistake was caught, but a significant number had already been sold. The highly complex nature of the music made it difficult to recognize the error without comparing it to the correct version.
- Some copies also 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.
In 1988, One Size Fits All was released on CD by Rykodisc.
Contents
Track listing
All songs written by Frank Zappa.
Side one
- "Inca Roads" – 8:45
- "Can't Afford No Shoes" – 2:38
- "Sofa No. 1" – 2:39
- "Po-Jama People" – 7:39
Side two
- "Florentine Pogen" – 5:27
- "Evelyn, a Modified Dog" – 1:04
- "San Ber'dino" – 5:57
- "Andy" – 6:04
- "Sofa No. 2" – 2:42
Personnel
Musicians
- Frank Zappa – vocals, guitar
- George Duke – keyboards, vocals, backing vocals, synthesizer
- Ruth Underwood – marimba, vibraphone, percussion
- Johnny "Guitar" Watson – vocals
- James "Bird Legs" Youman – bass guitar
- Chester Thompson – drums, sound effects, voices
- Tom Fowler – bass guitar
- Captain Beefheart (credited as 'Bloodshot Rollin' Red') – harmonica
- Napoleon Murphy Brock – tenor saxophone, vocals, backing vocals, flute
Production staff
- Kerry McNabb (credited as Kerry McNab) – engineer, remixing
- Cal Schenkel – design, illustrations, paintings
- Robert Stone – 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[5] References
- ^ Couture, F. (2011 [last update]). "One Size Fits All - The Mothers of Invention | AllMusic". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r22605/review. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
- ^ Scaruffi, P. (2011 [last update]). "The History of Rock Music. Frank Zappa: biography, discography, reviews, links". scaruffi.com. http://www.scaruffi.com/vol1/zappa.html. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
- ^ Christgau, R. (2011 [last update]). "Robert Christgau: CG: Artist 4155". robertchristgau.com. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist2.php?id=4155. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
- ^ Zappa Patio unreleased discography
- ^ "Charts and Awards for One Size Fits All". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r22605/charts-awards/billboard-album. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
External links
Categories:- Frank Zappa albums
- 1975 albums
- DiscReet Records albums
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
