FRANK ZAPPA - Freak Out!

Item Description

CD, , MPO Pressing
Album Reissue Remastered

Digitally remastered 1987 U.M.R.K.
Some of you audiofetishists out there will be thrilled to note that much of this album was remixed from the original master tapes

All compositions controlled worldwide by Frank Zappa Music BMI
© 1965 1969 Frank Zappa Music, BMI
℗ 1965, 1985 Barking Pumpkin Records
Manufactured and marketed by Today Croydon Ltd. under exclusive license
Made in England
[on rear cover]

All selections published in the U.K. by Carlin Music Corp.
© 1965 Frank Zappa Music, BMI
℗ 1987 Barking Pumpkin Records
Made in France
[on CD]

The cover artwork of the booklet is taken from the original vinyl release which states "The Mothers of Invention" as artist.
On the CD itself and on the spine "Frank Zappa" is mentioned as artist.

This release is very similar to [r537392] but with a notable misprint; the CD face is printed for the wrong release (this one [m421990]). Oddly, the misprint could have occurred for one of two reasons:

1) The CD is labelled for The Raspberries - Overnight Sensation which is also the name (Overnite Sensation) of a Frank Zappa album.

2) The more likely reason, I suppose, is the catalogue number which for The Raspberries' album is Zap CD1, Freak out is CD ZAP 1

Either way, you can see that The Raspberries album has the same CD face print as this release.

For years I thought this was a joke, but with the advent of Discogs, it has been possible to discover the truth! Investigating on the web, I found a reference to this release on this page: http://lukpac.org/~handmade/patio/vinylvscds/freakout.html:

Misprinted THE RASPBERRIES' GREATEST HITS CD

The Freak Out! album once appeared on a misprinted CD of The Raspberries' Greatest Hits. Stephen Bagger tells the story:

While shopping at the used CD store, I went to preview the handful of CDs I'd taken from the racks. By chance, the previous shopper had left a CD labeled "The Raspberries Greatest Hits" in the player. I didn't know that more than two Raspberries hits existed, so I decided to listen to the disk. Imagine my surprise when I heard the opening bars to "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" - surely this was a mistake? Yes, it was - the jewel case contained a bee-yootiful picture of Eric Carmen & The Raspberries in full pouty regalia, and the disk itself was silkscreened with a tracklist of Raspberry songs, but was encoded with the lovely skank of the MOI.

$6.00 (US) later, I was the proud owner of this musical bastard. I even called 818-PUMPKIN to ask if anyone there knew about someone selling ripoffs. The gentleman who answered seemed perturbed that I'd called to inform him of such unpleasantry as it had invaded his naptime (and I wasn't making a pu***ase).

This pressing was issued by ZAP! records in England. Has anyone else encountered this anomaly?

Harald Langer answers that, and has even more to add:

Yes. On Zappa's birthday last year [1995] there was a small party in Wetzlar/Germany hosted by Harald Koob, a CD dealer specialized in Zappa-related and "progressive rock" stuff. He organized a quiz where you could win some prizes (Zappa-related, you guessed it). When he announced the "Raspberries" CD as a last prize at the end of the party, he set up an evil grin and asked for the name of the orchestra that played on Lumpy Gravy. I smiled at him and replied that fierce grin and stammered the words "Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra & Chorus" from my memory - and got the CD.

What's different is that my CD came (not shrinkwrapped) with the normal booklet and back cover, like the official Zappa Records CD. The CD has the following printed onto it (notice the spelling):

The Raspberries
Overnight Sensation
The Very Best Of The Raspberries
ZAP CD 1
Made in France by MPO
Original Sound Recordings
All Tracks published by MCPS.

(Plus a tracklist.) Harald told me that this CD came to life due to an accident in the press factory. The very first Freak-Out! copies were wrongly labelled and they soon discovered the mistake.

If the text I have copied and pasted is copyrighted, please communicate via Discogs and I can remove it.