The expanded reissue – which includes the original album remastered as well as live tracks and session rarities from the era – will be released on September 13th. Following the release of 1973’s “Over-nite Sensation“, which was also credited to the Mothers, Zappa began assembling “Apostrophe” from new recordings and some archival tracks dating back a few years.
The album was a hit for Zappa, reaching the Top 10 in 1974 – the only record of his to do so. It includes his first charting single, “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,” It also features the fan favourite “Cosmik Debris.”
The five-CD and one Blu-ray Super Deluxe Edition of “Apostrophe (‘)” 50th Anniversary Edition includes 75 tracks, including a 2024 remaster, alternate takes, new mixes and two 1974 concert recordings from Colorado Springs and Dayton. Seven tracks of these live tracks were first issued on the out-of-print album “The Crux of the Biscuit” in 2016.
In addition to the Super Deluxe Edition set, the new “Apostrophe (‘)” will be released as a two-LP and 7-inch single edition, including white vinyl in a yellow-snow-splatter version; the single is a reproduction of “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” in a new “cosmic glow in the dark with yellow-snow splatter vinyl.”
A previously unreleased take of “Uncle Remus (Piano and Vocal Mix 2024)”. This newly mixed version is culled from the original 16-track master, featuring isolated piano and tack piano tracks by George Duke along with a spotlighting of FZ and The Ikettes’ vocal master tracks. It’s but one of the multiple versions of this classic Zappa/Duke joint composition that appears in the Super Deluxe Edition box set.
A Blu-ray in the box 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 mixes of 2022’s “Waka/Wazoo” and 2023’s “Over-Nite Sensation” release. Plus it includes Zappa’s original four-channel Quadraphonic mix (available again for the first time since 1974) as well as the hi-res stereo 2024 remaster. The lavish Super Deluxe Edition box comes complete with a 52-page booklet and unseen photos from the archives of Sam Emerson, the man who shot the now-iconic closeup cover image of Zappa, in addition to liner notes and new essays by noted British journalist Simon Prentis and, as always, Vaultmeister Travers.
In addition to the Super Deluxe Edition, there will be two separate vinyl releases: A two-LP + 7” single edition with both 180-gram audiophile LPs appearing on white vinyl with yellow-snow splatter, as cut from the original analog tape by Grundman. The 7” of “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” is a reproduction of the original 1974 single — but this time, it comes on glow-in-the-dark-with-yellow-splatter vinyl. The single-LP edition features the original album’s nine tracks on 180-gram audiophile gold vinyl. Additionally, the Super Deluxe Edition will be available digitally, as will a Dolby Atmos mix of the core
album’s nine tracks.
The Fat Angel Sings 