Wiki
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Release Date
7 September 1973
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Length
7 tracks
Over-Nite Sensation is the twelfth album by The Mothers of Invention (credited as The Mothers), and the seventeenth album overall by Frank Zappa, released in September 1973. It was Zappa's first album released on his DiscReet label. His solo album Apostrophe (') (1974) was recorded during the same sessions for Over-Nite Sensation.
Frank Zappa wanted to use backup singers on the songs "I'm the Slime", "Dirty Love", "Zomby Woof", "Dinah-Moe Humm" and "Montana". His road manager suggested The Ikettes, and Ike & Tina Turner were contacted. Ike Turner insisted that Zappa pay the singers, including Tina Turner, no more than $25 per song. However, an invoice shows that they were actually paid $25 per hour, and in total $187.50 each for 7 1/2 hours of service. During the recording sessions at Bolic Sound, Tina brought Ike into the studio to hear the highly difficult middle section of "Montana" which had taken the Ikettes a few days to learn and master. Ike listened to the tape and responded "What is this shit?" before leaving the studio. Ike later insisted that Zappa not credit the Ikettes on the released album.
The recording sessions which produced Over-Nite Sensation also produced Zappa's followup, Apostrophe (') (1974), released as a solo album rather than a Mothers of Invention release.
Much of the album's lyrics deal with sex. For example, "Dinah-Moe Humm" describes a woman who wagers that the narrator can't give her an orgasm and is ultimately aroused by watching him have sex with her sister.
On other topics, "I'm the Slime" criticises television, and the playful and musically adventurous "Montana" describes moving to Montana to grow dental floss.
The music of Over-Nite Sensation draws from rock, jazz and pop music. "Zomby Woof" has been described as a "heavy metal hybrid of Louis Jordan and Fats Waller".
The cover was done by Dave McMacken as somewhat in vein of Salvador Dalí's surreal imagery depicting a two-headed man sitting on a waterbed in a Holiday Inn hotel room surrounded by various objects like a Mothers backstage pass and a television set showing Zappa's face with slime oozing out of it. The entire painting is depicted in a frame showing many sexual acts.
In celebration of 50 years of Over-Nite Sensation, a newly expanded 50th anniversary edition will be released on November 17 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.
Personnel:
Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals on all tracks except "Fifty-Fifty" and most of "Zomby Woof"
George Duke – synthesizer, keyboards
Bruce Fowler – trombone
Tom Fowler – bass
Ralph Humphrey – drums
Ricky Lancelotti – vocals on "Fifty-Fifty" and "Zomby Woof"
Sal Marquez – trumpet, vocals on "Dinah-Moe-Humm"
Jean-Luc Ponty – violin, baritone violin
Ian Underwood– clarinet, flute, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Ruth Underwood – percussion, marimba, vibraphone
Kin Vassy – vocals on "I'm the Slime", "Dinah-Moe-Humm" and "Montana"
Tina Turner and the Ikettes - Backing vocals (uncredited)
Production:
Producer: Frank Zappa
Engineers: Fred Borkgren, Steve Desper, Terry Dunavan, Barry Keene, Bob Stone
Remixing: Kerry McNabb
Digital remastering: Bernie Grundman, Bob Stone
Arranger: Frank Zappa
Technician: Paul Hof
Cover design: Ferenc Dobronyi, Cal Schenkel
Illustrations: David McMacken
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