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Bizarre Records was a record label
Record label

In the music industry, a record label can be a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of recorded sound and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the Record producer, manufacturing, distribution , marketing and promotion, and enforcement of copyright protec...
 formed for artists discovered by Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock music, jazz, electronic music, orchestral, and musique concr?te works....
 and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen
Herb Cohen

Herb Cohen is a record company executive and businessman, best known as the manager of Frank Zappa and many other Los Angeles-based musicians in the 1960s and 1970s....
.

Bizarre was originally formed as a production company. Zappa's label, Verve Records
Verve Records

Verve Records is an United States Jazz record label now owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels: Norgran Records and Clef Records and material which had been licensed to Mercury Records previously....
, had missed the deadline to renew their option on Zappa's recording contract after his second album with The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention

The Mothers of Invention was an American rock and roll band active from 1964 to 1975. They mainly performed works by and were the original recording group of composer and guitarist Frank Zappa, although other members have an occasional writing credit....
, Absolutely Free
Absolutely Free

Absolutely Free is the second album by The Mothers of Invention, led by Frank Zappa. Absolutely Free is once again a display of complex musical composition and with political and social satire....
 in 1967. This gave Zappa and Cohen the upper hand in negotiating their own production deal with Verve.






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Bizarre Records was a record label
Record label

In the music industry, a record label can be a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of recorded sound and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the Record producer, manufacturing, distribution , marketing and promotion, and enforcement of copyright protec...
 formed for artists discovered by Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock music, jazz, electronic music, orchestral, and musique concr?te works....
 and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen
Herb Cohen

Herb Cohen is a record company executive and businessman, best known as the manager of Frank Zappa and many other Los Angeles-based musicians in the 1960s and 1970s....
.

Bizarre was originally formed as a production company. Zappa's label, Verve Records
Verve Records

Verve Records is an United States Jazz record label now owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels: Norgran Records and Clef Records and material which had been licensed to Mercury Records previously....
, had missed the deadline to renew their option on Zappa's recording contract after his second album with The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention

The Mothers of Invention was an American rock and roll band active from 1964 to 1975. They mainly performed works by and were the original recording group of composer and guitarist Frank Zappa, although other members have an occasional writing credit....
, Absolutely Free
Absolutely Free

Absolutely Free is the second album by The Mothers of Invention, led by Frank Zappa. Absolutely Free is once again a display of complex musical composition and with political and social satire....
 in 1967. This gave Zappa and Cohen the upper hand in negotiating their own production deal with Verve. As the owner of his own production company Zappa greatly increased the amount of creative control he had over his work.

The first albums associated with Bizarre were released in early 1968. These included We're Only in It for the Money
We're Only in It for the Money

We're Only in It For the Money is an experimental rock album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. It bridges a variety of styles and genres....
 by the Mothers of Invention and Lumpy Gravy
Lumpy Gravy

Lumpy Gravy is the first solo album by Frank Zappa, originally released in 1967, but not generally available until May 1968. Zappa was credited as conducting on the album cover and he described the contents as "a curiously inconsistent piece, which started out to be a BALLET, but probably didn't make it." The album consists of pieces of Z...
, Zappa's first solo album. Other Zappa related releases were Cruising with Ruben & the Jets
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets

Cruising With Ruben & The Jets is an album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, released in 1968 , and controversially reissued in an alternate mix with newly recorded bass and percussion in 1984....
 (1968) and Mothermania
Mothermania

Mothermania is a compilation album by The Mothers of Invention, led by Frank Zappa. It contains tracks, personally chosen by Zappa , that were previously released on Freak Out!, Absolutely Free and We're Only in It for the Money....
 (1969). The company also produced the late 1968 release Sandy's Album Is Here At Last by singer-songwriter Sandy Hurvitz, now better known as Essra Mohawk
Essra Mohawk

Essra Mohawk is an United States singer-songwriter who has recorded a dozen albums, many receiving critical acclaim, and penned the hits "Change of Heart" for Cyndi Lauper and "Stronger Than the Wind," recorded by Tina Turner....
. These albums were all released by Verve Records
Verve Records

Verve Records is an United States Jazz record label now owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels: Norgran Records and Clef Records and material which had been licensed to Mercury Records previously....
 under the "Bizarre Productions" imprint.

In 1969 Bizarre became a record label distributed by Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an United States record label that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. It is also affectionately known as "Warners" and 'the Bunny', based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons released by Warner Bros....
. This venture was formed at the same time as a companion label, Straight Records
Straight Records

Straight Records was a record label formed in 1969 in music to distribute productions and discoveries of Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen....
, also distributed by Warner Bros. When the Bizarre and Straight labels were created Zappa's intention was to release albums by avant-garde artists on Bizarre, and recordings by more mainstream artists on Straight. However the original concept failed to work out as expected due to issues with distribution and management. This led to some very unusual albums on the Straight label especially those by Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart

Don Van Vliet is an United States musician and visual artist, best known by the pseudonym Captain Beefheart. His musical work was mainly conducted with a rotating assembly of musicians called The Magic Band, which was active from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s....
, Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper is an American rock music singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, and boa constrictors, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, heavy metal music, and garage rock to create a theatrical brand of rock musi...
 and The GTOs
The GTOs

The GTOs were a "groupie group" that consisted of Pamela Des Barres , Miss Sparky , Miss Lucy, Miss Christine , Miss Sandra , Miss Mercy and Miss Cynderella ....
.

Zappa released eight of his own albums with and without the Mothers of Invention on Bizarre from 1969 to 1972. The only Zappa project not on Bizarre during this period was the 200 Motels
200 Motels (soundtrack)

The 200 Motels OST is the soundtrack to Frank Zappa's 200 Motels....
 film soundtrack album, released by United Artists Records
United Artists Records

United Artists Records was a record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1958 initially to distribute Soundtrack from its movies, though it soon branched out into recording music of a number of different genres....
 in 1971.

Bizarre and Straight were both discontinued by 1973. In their place Zappa and Cohen created DiscReet Records
DiscReet Records

DiscReet Records was a company founded by Frank Zappa and his then business partner/manager Herb Cohen. DiscReet was created in 1973 when their previous companies Bizarre Records and Straight Records were discontinued....
 also distributed by Warner Bros. The Zappa/Mothers titles on Bizarre were re-issued on Reprise Records
Reprise Records

Reprise Records is an United States record label, founded in 1960 in music by Frank Sinatra, which is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros....
 between 1973 and 1981. The Zappa/Mothers titles are now available on CD from Rykodisc
Rykodisc

Rykodisc Records is an United States record label, owned by Warner Music Group....
.

The only other Bizarre Records artists were "Wild Man Fischer
Wild Man Fischer

Larry "Wild Man" Fischer has the claim to fame of being responsible for Rhino Records' first release — Go To Rhino Records ....
" and Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce , born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was an United States stand-up comedian, writer, Cultural critic and satire of the 1950s and 1960s....
. In 1988 Enigma Retro
Enigma Records

Enigma Records was a popular rock music and alternative music record label in the 1980s. It was initially a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/distributor, from which it split off in 1985 to become its own company....
 released Lenny Bruce's only album for Bizarre The Berkeley Concert on CD and cassette.

See also

  • List of record labels
    List of record labels

    This is a list of notable record labels.Owing to the large number of entries, the list has been divided by the first letter of the label's name, with labels starting with a number added to this page:...


External links