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Straight 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 in 1969
1969 in music

EventsPerhaps the two most famous musical events of 1969 were concerts. At a Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, a fan was stabbed to death by Hells Angels, a biker gang that had been hired to provide security for the event....
 to distribute productions and discoveries of 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....
. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion label, Bizarre Records
Bizarre Records

Bizarre Records was a record label formed for artists discovered by Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen.Bizarre was originally formed as a production company....
. Straight and Bizarre were manufactured and distributed in the U.S. 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....
. Straight Records recordings were distributed in the U.K. by CBS Records.

Frank Zappa himself chose most of the artists for the Straight label.






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Straight 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 in 1969
1969 in music

EventsPerhaps the two most famous musical events of 1969 were concerts. At a Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, a fan was stabbed to death by Hells Angels, a biker gang that had been hired to provide security for the event....
 to distribute productions and discoveries of 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....
. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion label, Bizarre Records
Bizarre Records

Bizarre Records was a record label formed for artists discovered by Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen.Bizarre was originally formed as a production company....
. Straight and Bizarre were manufactured and distributed in the U.S. 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....
. Straight Records recordings were distributed in the U.K. by CBS Records.

Frank Zappa himself chose most of the artists for the Straight label. His original 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 record distribution and artist management. 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....
, 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....
, 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....
 certainly fit in at Bizarre, but all others ended up on Straight. 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 was also responsible for The Persuasions
The Persuasions

The Persuasions are an a cappella group who began singing together in Brooklyn, New York in the early 1960s and went on to produce numerous albums covering a wide range of musical genres....
 first LP Acappella. He heard The Persuasions singing live over the phone in a New Jersey record shop. Due to his passion for Doo-wop
Doo-wop

Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music, which developed in African-American communities in the 1940s and which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s the 1960s....
 Zappa immediately flew the vocal group to Los Angeles to record the album.

Other notable Straight artists included Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley

Timothy Charles Buckley III was an experimental vocalist and musician who incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul music, and avant-garde rock in a career spanning the late 1960s and early 1970s....
, and the duo of Judy Henske
Judy Henske

Judy Henske is an American singer and songwriter, once known as "the Queen of the Beatniks"....
 & Jerry Yester
Jerry Yester

Jerry Yester is an American folk rock musician, record producer, arranger.Growing up in Burbank, California, Yester formed a duo with brother Jim Yester, the Yester Brothers, and starting playing folk music clubs in Los Angeles in 1960....
. These musicians came to the label through an association with manager Herb Cohen.

Starting in 1972 some Straight recordings were re-issued by 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....
 or 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....
. By 1973 Straight and Bizarre were discontinued. The first issue of Love It to Death
Love It to Death

Love It to Death is a 1971 album by Alice Cooper. Hits include "Ballad of Dwight Fry", "Is It My Body", and one of Cooper's trademark songs, "I'm Eighteen"....
 by 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...
 was on Straight, though by the time it became a massive hit the album had already been re-issued on Warner Bros. In place of their previous labels Zappa and Cohen created a new label, 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/Cohen business partnership ended acrimoniously in 1976. At that time Zappa retained ownership of his work and Herb Cohen assumed ownership of most of the non-Zappa material.

In 1988 and 1989 Straight recordings 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...
, Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley

Timothy Charles Buckley III was an experimental vocalist and musician who incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul music, and avant-garde rock in a career spanning the late 1960s and early 1970s....
, 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 ....
, The Persuasions
The Persuasions

The Persuasions are an a cappella group who began singing together in Brooklyn, New York in the early 1960s and went on to produce numerous albums covering a wide range of musical genres....
, and Lord Buckley
Lord Buckley

H.R.H. Richard Lord Buckley was an American Recording Artist a monologist and Hip poet....
 were briefly re-issued on CD and cassette by the 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....
 label. Since the early 1990's the ownership of some Straight Records recordings has become unclear. This has apparently prevented further re-issues of some of this material.

List of Straight Records artists


  • 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...
  • Tim Buckley
    Tim Buckley

    Timothy Charles Buckley III was an experimental vocalist and musician who incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul music, and avant-garde rock in a career spanning the late 1960s and early 1970s....
  • Jeff Simmons
    Jeff Simmons (musician)

    Jeff Simmons is a Rock music musician and former member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Simmons provided bass, guitar, and/or vocal for the group between 1970 and 1971....
  • Junier Mintz
  • Lord Buckley
    Lord Buckley

    H.R.H. Richard Lord Buckley was an American Recording Artist a monologist and Hip poet....
  • Judy Henske
    Judy Henske

    Judy Henske is an American singer and songwriter, once known as "the Queen of the Beatniks"....
     & Jerry Yester
    Jerry Yester

    Jerry Yester is an American folk rock musician, record producer, arranger.Growing up in Burbank, California, Yester formed a duo with brother Jim Yester, the Yester Brothers, and starting playing folk music clubs in Los Angeles in 1960....
  • 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 ....
     (Girls Together Outrageously)
  • Tim Dawe
  • Mayf Nutter
  • The Persuasions
    The Persuasions

    The Persuasions are an a cappella group who began singing together in Brooklyn, New York in the early 1960s and went on to produce numerous albums covering a wide range of musical genres....
  • Rosebud
    Rosebud (band)

    Rosebud was the name of an American popular music group which released a single, eponymous album in 1971.Its members were Judy Henske, Jerry Yester, Craig Doerge, John Seiter, and David Vaught....


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