Zappa’s Universe (feat. Rockapella & The Persuasions)
USA (1993)
Following in my time-honored tradition of not having any damn clue where I discover music, I got into Frank Zappa backwards. By that I mean I had listened to tons of music that was obviously descended from his work and only discovered the primary source material after going through this album. It’s the Zappa’s Universe project/concert/whatever, which was the end result of live tribute concerts to the great Frank himself. So yes, I heard these cover versions first, then went back to find out where the originals where, and proceeded to fall into the Zappa rabbit hole of the 287 albums (legit, bootleg, and otherwise) that were put out just during his too-short lifetime.
These songs were the two that first caught my attention on the album, because badass a cappella singing usually does catch my attention. I was going to go with the Persuasions track for today, but finding this vid with them both performed back to back, I found it ill-advised to separate the two. And yes, that’s Rockapella on the first track. They look goofy, but it was the early 90s and things were a little goofy then. Kids, ask your parents.
It appears the album itself is out of print. Not even available digitally. Catch it for used cheap when you can.
