Frank Zappa - Over-nite Sensation

Frank Zappa's legendary 1973 album fully chronicled and celebrated!

4CD + 1Blu-ray Audio Super Deluxe Edition

Three 88-track, five-disc expanded Super Deluxe Edition contains outtakes, alternate edits, and unedited bonus vault masters plus two previously unreleased shows recorded at the Hollywood Palladium and Detroit's Cobo Hall

Blu-ray boasts original quad mix along with new surround and Dolby Atmos mixes of the core album!

"Over-Nite Sensation will go on in history as one of the absolute quintessential Frank Zappa records of his entire catalog. Happy 50th anniversary, OS — may you live on forever and continue to delight the ‘Lifers' as well as providing an entry point to one of the most iconic, influential, and important composers of 20th century music."
— Joe Travers, Zappa Vaultmeister

Over-Nite Sensation turns 50! The album that has long been a fan favorite gateway into Zappa's vast musical universe has been newly expanded with bonus remixes and live tracks forged from creation of the benchmark gold-selling record.

In 1973, Frank Zappa and The Mothers were once again on the move. Coming off a year laden with a pair of well-lauded high watermarks — July 1972's jazz-fusiony solo masterstroke Waka/Jawaka and November 1972's big-band Mothers progression The Grand Wazoo — Zappa wanted to next convene another revised Mothers collective, rethink some long-throw compositional tracts, and begin exploring the differences inherent in the form and function of his songwriting. In turn, Zappa also decided to bring his own singing voice more to the lead vocal fore than ever before, as well as refine the scope of his guitar playing.

And thus, September 1973's Over-Nite Sensation was born. A stone cold classic, Over-Nite Sensation has long been viewed by both the cognoscenti and layman as being a gateway album entry into the Zappaverse at large, serving as a mighty grand place to enter into the breach along with his follow-up March 1974 solo release, Apostrophe(‘). It was also the first album by Zappa to be released in Quadraphonic surround sound, an ever-evolving sonic medium Zappa would continue to explore throughout his career on the cutting edge.

Not only did Over-Nite Sensation signal a change in musical direction for The Mothers at large, but Zappa handled the bulk of the lead vocal duties and staked his claim as the album's only guitarist. It was a new band with a new sound that resonated widely, eventually going gold in 1976. Over the ensuing years, almost every song on Over-Nite Sensation became indelible live staples and longstanding fan favorites, with "I'm The Slime," "Fifty-Fifty," "Zomby Woof," and "Camarillo Brillo" immediately making their respective presences known in the setlist. In the here-and-now, 50 years on, Over-Nite Sensation remains both one of the top-tier highlights of the vast Zappa catalog as well as one of his most consistent bestsellers.

In celebration of 50 years of Over-Nite Sensation, a newly expanded 50th anniversary edition will be released on November 3, 2023 via Zappa Records/UMe in a variety of formats, including a five-disc (4CD/1Blu-ray Audio) Super Deluxe Edition that showcases 88 tracks in total, featuring 57 previously unreleased tracks and mixes. Produced and compiled by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, this new, expanded collection titled Over-Nite Sensation: 50th Anniversary Edition, boasts the 2012 remaster of the original album by Bob Ludwig, along with additional unreleased masters, highlights, and mix outtakes from the original 1973 sessions mastered by John Polito. Also included are two completely unreleased live concert recordings from 1973 showcasing the same band that recorded the classic album - one show captured at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, and the other recorded at Cobo Hall in Detroit. The Blu-ray contains the core album newly remixed in Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround sound by Karma Auger and Erich Gobel at Studio1LA, the same team behind the acclaimed Dolby Atmos and surround mixes of 2022's Waka/Wazoo release, plus it offers Zappa's original 4-channel Quadraphonic mix (available again for the first time since 1973) as well as the hi-res stereo 2012 remaster at both 24-bit/192kHz and 24-bit/96kHz. The lavish, Super Deluxe Edition box is rounding out with a 48-page booklet and unseen photos from the album cover shoot by Sam Emerson, along with liner notes and new essays by noted audiophile journalist Mark Smotroff and Travers.

The new group of Mothers heard on Over-Nite Sensation was comprised of virtuoso musicians rooted in jazz (keyboardist George Duke, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, drummer Ralph Humphrey, and trumpeter Sal Marquez) and serious music (wind instrumentalist Ian Underwood and percussionist Ruth Underwood) alike, all polished off with the Fowler brothers duly in tow (with Bruce Fowler on trombone, and Tom Fowler on bass). As a result, the instrumentation of this aurally palpable Mothers lineup was akin to having a mini orchestra in a rock format — and Zappa utilized them brilliantly, crafting arrangements for existing material like "Cosmik Debris" and "Montana" in addition to writing a large number of new compositions to maximize their strengths.

The recording sessions at Bolic Sound and Whitney Studios were sweetened by the addition of some now-iconic guest vocalists. The truly crazy, over-the-top vocal stylings of Ricky Lancelotti catapulted songs like "Fifty-Fifty" and "Zomby Woof" into the stratosphere. For his part, Kin Vassy (of Kenny Rogers and The First Edition) added numerous, tasty tidbits all throughout. But perhaps the most legendary guest turns of them all would be those by Tina Turner and The Ikettes. With Zappa tracking at Ike Turner's Bolic Sound studio in Inglewood, Calif., it only seemed logical that Tina and Frank's paths would eventually cross. Although famously uncredited, Tina and The Ikettes' background vocals were draped all throughout the record and are undeniably unique -and spot-on perfect. If you dropped the needle on Over-Nite Sensation for the first time in 1973, it was immediately apparent something new, different, and exciting was happening in Zappa's ever-expanding musical universe. The material was funky, funny, challenging, and mighty — and, yes, even more accessible than his output of the prior few years.

Over-Nite Sensation indeed opened new commercial doors for Frank Zappa, but the maestro himself would not be sucked down into the corporate conformity ooze as he continued following his own muse all throughout the 1970s, and beyond.

CD 1

Over-Nite Sensation – The Album

Camarillo Brillo

I’m The Slime

Dirty Love

Fifty-Fifty

Zomby Woof

Dinah-Moe Humm

Montana

Bonus Session Masters * Previously unreleased

Wonderful Wino (Complete Edit)

Inca Roads (1973 Version, 2023 Mix)

RDNZL (1973 Mix)

For The Young Sophisticate (Dolby EQ Copy)

I’m The Slime (Single Version)

Montana (Single Edit with Intro)

Bonus Vault Sensations * Previously unreleased

Inca Roads (Bolic Take-Home Mix)

RDNZL (Take 2)

X-Forts (Echidna’s Arf (of You))

CD 2

Bonus Vault Sensations * Previously unreleased

Camarillo Brillo (Alternate Mix)

Face Down (I’m The Slime – Demo)

I’m The Slime (Basic Track Outtake)

Dirty Love (Session Rehearsal)

Dirty Love (with Quad Guitar)

Fifty-Fifty – Pipe Organ Intro Improvisations

Fifty-Fifty (Basic Tracks, Take 7)

Dinah-Moe Humm (Session Rehearsal)

Dinah-Moe Humm (Bolic Take-Home Mix)

Montana (Bolic Take-Home Mix)

Live in Hollywood, California, Hollywood Palladium – March 23, 1973 * Previously unreleased

Montana

Dupree’s Paradise (Intro)

Dupree’s Paradise

CD 3

Cosmik Debris

“The Dynamic Sal Marquez!”

Big Swifty

“…The Successor to Willie The Pimp”

The Curse Of The Zomboids (I’m The Slime)

Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?

FZ & The Percussion Section

Palladium Jam – Part 1

Palladium Jam – Part 2

CD 4

Live in Detroit, Michigan, Cobo Hall – May 12, 1973 * Previously unreleased

Cobo Hall ’73 Band Intros and Sound Check

Exercise #4

Dog Breath

The Dog Breath Variations

Uncle Meat

Fifty-Fifty

Inca Roads

FZ Introduces the Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow Medley

Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow

Nanook Rubs It

St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast

Father O’Blivion

St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast (Reprise)

Join The March

Cosmik Debris

Medley: King Kong/Chunga’s Revenge/Son Of Mr. Green Genes

BLU-RAY AUDIO: Over-Nite Sensation – The Album

Camarillo Brillo

I’m The Slime

Dirty Love

Fifty-Fifty

Zomby Woof

Dinah-Moe Humm

Montana

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