Editing Frank Zappa (section)

==="Valley Girl" and classical performances===
{{see also|Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch|The Man from Utopia|London Symphony Orchestra (Zappa albums)}}
In May 1982, Zappa released ''[[Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch]]'', which featured his biggest selling single ever, the [[Grammy Award]]-nominated song "[[Valley Girl (song)|Valley Girl]]" (topping out at No.&nbsp;32 on the ''Billboard'' charts).<ref name="BBsingles"/> In her improvised lyrics to the song, Zappa's daughter [[Moon Zappa|Moon]] satirized the [[patois]] of teenage girls from the [[San Fernando Valley]], which popularized many "[[Valleyspeak]]" expressions such as "gag me with a spoon", "fer sure, fer sure", "grody to the max", and "barf out".<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=song|id=t2677879|pure_url=yes}}|title="Valley Girl" --song review|last=Huey|first=Steve|work=AllMusic|access-date=January 7, 2008}}</ref>

A 1983 album ''[[The Man from Utopia]],'' featured an anti-drug single "[[Cocaine Decisions]]". "The Dangerous Kitchen" and "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats" are continuations of the sprechstimme vocal excursions on ''Tinseltown Rebellion'', and the album also has jazzy rock instrumentals "Mōggio" and "We Are Not Alone". A second 1983 album, ''[[London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I]]'', includes orchestral Zappa compositions conducted by [[Kent Nagano]] and performed by the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] (LSO). A second record of these sessions, ''[[London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II]]'' was released in 1987. The material was recorded under a tight schedule with Zappa providing all funding, helped by the commercial success of "Valley Girl".<ref name="Occhiogrosso"/>{{rp|146–156}} Zappa was not satisfied with the LSO recordings. One reason is "Strictly Genteel", which was recorded after the trumpet section had been out for drinks on a break: the track took 40 edits to hide out-of-tune notes.<ref name="Occhiogrosso"/>{{rp|146–156}}

Conductor Nagano, who was pleased with the experience, noted that "in fairness to the orchestra, the music is humanly very, very difficult".<ref name="miles"/>{{rp|315}} Some reviews noted that the recordings were the best representation of Zappa's orchestral work so far.<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r53172|pure_url=yes}}|title=London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 1. Review|first=William|last=Ruhlmann|work=AllMusic|access-date=January 7, 2008}}</ref> In 1984 Zappa teamed again with Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra<ref>{{cite web|url=http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/docs/A_Zappa_Affair.html |title=A Zappa Affair |website=Globalia.net |access-date=December 10, 2016}}</ref> for a live performance of ''A Zappa Affair'' with augmented orchestra, life-size puppets, and moving stage sets. Although critically acclaimed, the work was a financial failure, and only performed twice. Zappa was invited by conference organizer [[Thomas Wells (composer)|Thomas Wells]] to be the keynote speaker at the American Society of University Composers at the [[Ohio State University]]. It was there Zappa delivered an address entitled "Bingo! There Goes Your Tenure",<ref>{{cite web |first=Frank |last=Zappa |url=https://otg.brainiac.com/fzfull.htm |title=Bingo! There Goes Your Tenure |year=1984 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180328152956/https://otg.brainiac.com/fzfull.htm |archive-date=March 28, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> and had two of his orchestra pieces, "Dupree's Paradise" and "Naval Aviation in Art?" performed by the [[Columbus Symphony Orchestra]] and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus.<ref name="miles"/>{{rp|323}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Kelp |first=Larry |title=Zappa Pokes into The Fine Arts |newspaper=The Oakland Tribune |date=June 18, 1984 |url=https://www.afka.net/Articles/1984-06_Oakland_Tribune.htm |access-date=July 5, 2009 |archive-date=October 4, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091004014926/http://www.afka.net/Articles/1984-06_Tribune.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Zappa's management relationship with Bennett Glotzer ended in 1984.<ref>Don Menn, "How It All Works. Gail Zappa", Zappa!, 1992, p. 76</ref> Starting in 1985 Gail began managing much of the Zappa business empire, which included a record label, a mail-order company, a video company and a music publishing firm.<ref name="capitalistrocker">{{cite news |date=December 19, 1989 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-19-fi-721-story.html |title=Frank Zappa, Capitalist Rocker : Entrepreneurship: Zappa got title to his master recordings... |first=Patrice |last=Apodaca |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=July 29, 2023}}</ref>