Straight Records, self-identified simply as Straight, was a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

formed in 1969 to distribute productions and discoveries of

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

and his business partner/manager

Herb Cohen Herbert Cohen (December 30, 1932 – March 16, 2010) was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Judy Henske, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Odetta, Tom Waits, Geo ...

. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion label,

Bizarre Records Bizarre Records, self-identified simply as Bizarre, was a production company and record label formed for artists discovered by rock musician Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen. History Bizarre was originally formed as a produ ...

. Straight and Bizarre were manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by the

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

family of labels, which also included

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

. Straight recordings were distributed in the U.K. by CBS Records. Frank Zappa chose the majority 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.

the Mothers of Invention The Mothers of Invention (also known as The Mothers) was an American rock band from California. Formed in 1964, their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Originally an R&B band ...

Wild Man Fischer Lawrence Wayne "Wild Man" Fischer (November 6, 1944 – June 16, 2011) was an American street performer known for offering erratic, a cappella performances of "new kinds of songs" for a dime on the beaches and the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. ...

, and

Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...

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 Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as Th ...

Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...

and

the GTOs ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

. Zappa was also responsible for

the Persuasions The Persuasions are an American a cappella group that began singing together in Brooklyn, New York in the mid-1960s. The Persuasions were formed in Brooklyn in 1962, singing a cappella under corner streetlights and in subway corridors. Their ...

' first LP, ''Acapella''. Over the phone he heard the Persuasions singing live in a

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

Zappa immediately flew the vocal group to Los Angeles to record. Other notable Straight artists included

Tim Buckley Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years. Buckley began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums experimented with ...

, and the duo of

Judy Henske Judith Anne "Judy" Henske (December 20, 1936 – April 27, 2022) was an American singer and songwriter, dubbed "the Queen of the Beatniks" by producer Jack Nitzsche. Initially performing in folk clubs in the early 1960s, her performances and r ...

Jerry Yester Jerome Alan Yester (born January 9, 1943) is an American folk rock musician, record producer, and arranger. Biography Yester was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and grew up in Burbank, California. He formed a duo with brother ...

. These musicians came to the label through an association with manager Herb Cohen. The first issue of '' Love It to Death'' by

was on Straight. However, by the time the album became a success it had already been re-issued on Warner Bros. Starting in 1972 this and other Straight recordings were re-issued by either Reprise or Warner Bros. By 1973 the Bizarre and Straight distribution agreement with Warner ended. Under a new agreement starting that year Zappa and Cohen's business ventures with Warner were merged and renamed to create

DiscReet Records DiscReet Records, self-identified simply as DiscReet, was a record label founded by Frank Zappa and his then business partner/manager Herb Cohen. The name of the label was a pun derived from disc and the Compatible Discrete 4 process of encoding ...

. The Zappa/Cohen business partnership ended acrimoniously with litigation from both sides in 1976. In the settlement, reached a few years later, Zappa retained ownership of his work and Herb Cohen assumed ownership of most of the non-Zappa material from Bizarre, Straight and DiscReet. In 1988 and 1989 Straight recordings by

, and

Lord Buckley Lord Richard Buckley (born Richard Myrle Buckley; April 5, 1906 – November 12, 1960) was an American stand-up comedian and recording artist, who in the 1940s and 1950s created a character that was, according to ''The New York Times'', "an unli ...

were briefly re-issued on CD and cassette by the Enigma Retro label. Zappa died at age 52 in 1993. Cohen died at age 77 in 2010. Rumors have been made that since the early 1990s the ownership of some Straight recordings has become unclear. This may have prevented further re-issues of some Straight material. By the late 2000s, however, some of these recordings (such as Tim Buckley's ''Blue Afternoon'' and ''Starsailor'', and Captain Beefheart's ''Lick My Decals Off Baby'') have since been reissued on 180-gram vinyl and have been made available for sale on the iTunes Store. They have not, however, been reissued on CD. Whilst it has not been officially stated, it is believed that the clause preventing these albums' re-release only covered CD releases and not other formats. However, tracks from them have been licensed for and appeared on CD compilations in recent years.

List of Straight Records artists

* Jeff Simmons * Junier Mintz (aka Frank Zappa and the Mothers) *

The GTOs ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

(Girls Together Outrageously) * Tim Dawe * Mayf Nutter *

The Persuasions The Persuasions are an American a cappella group that began singing together in Brooklyn, New York in the mid-1960s. The Persuasions were formed in Brooklyn in 1962, singing a cappella under corner streetlights and in subway corridors. Their ...

Rosebud Rosebud may refer to: * Rose bud, the bud of a rose flower Arts * The name of Jerry Garcia's guitar from 1990 until his death in 1995. * In the 1941 film ''Citizen Kane'', the last words of Charles Foster Kane and an overall plot device. * "Ros ...

References

External links

Discography of Zappa related record labelsDiscogs page
{{Authority control Rock record labels Frank Zappa Record labels based in California Record labels established in 1969 Defunct record labels of the United States

List of Straight Records artists

See also

References

External links