September 18, 2015

Featured 45: Frank and Moon Zappa's "Valley Girl"

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Frank and Moon Zappa "Valley Girl" 45 Cover Frank and Moon Zappa "Valley Girl" 45 Cover

With the sad news of the recent passing of Frank Zappa’s widow Gail, I thought this would be an appropriate time to display the “Valley Girl’s” single.

Gail Zappa, who was born in Philadelphia, was not only a staunch supporter and protector of Frank’s music, but also fought hard to protect the rights of all recording artists.

As the head of the Frank Zappa family trust, she gave permission to release some unearthed material by the legendary rocker, but she fought hard to stop people from using his music or name to promote concerts or other events.

Gail hated the idea of so called tribute bands playing Frank Zappa music. As a result, her son Dweezil Zappa is the only one who is allowed to play Frank’s music in concert without permission. His Zappa on Zappa tours show just how complicated Frank’s music really was and how good a musician Dweezil has become.

Another of Gail’s children, Moon Zappa, contributed to the only Top Forty hit Frank ever had. On this 45 released in 1982, Frank made fun of the “empty headed” valley girls. Moon, who was just 14 at the time, did a great impersonation of the way the girls from California’s Fernando Valley of Los Angeles talked. "For sure," "totally," and "Oh my God" or OMG are still used today to express surprise.

Valley Girls were also immortalized by a movie of the same name released after the hit record.

Published in The Archives
More in this category: « Featured 45s: Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon" & Bog Seger's "Even Now" Featured 45: The Electric Light Orchestra “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” / “Fire on High” »

1 comment

  • Comment Link Ed Drakeley Thursday, June 16, 2016 posted by Ed Drakeley

    Frank Zappa was one of my favorite concerts to see when I was growing up in Delaware county. He would always play at the spectrum on Halloween. I remember when they played the valley girls at one of those concerts. But the best had to be when Frank hooked up with captain beefheart!

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