Straight Records

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Straight Records was a record label formed in 1969 to distribute productions and discoveries of Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion label, Bizarre Records.

Frank Zappa himself chose most 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. Frank Zappa, The Mothers of Invention, Wild Man Fischer, and Lenny Bruce 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, Alice Cooper and The GTOs.

Zappa was also responsible for The Persuasions first LP Acappella released on Straight in 1969. He heard The Persuasions singing live over the phone in a New Jersey record shop. Due to his passion for Doo-wop Zappa immediately flew the vocal group to Los Angeles to record the album. Thirty years later Zappa fan Rip Rense encouraged & supervised the leader of The Persuasions, Jerry Lawson, in the creation of a tribute CD to Zappa, Frankly a Cappella on Earthbeat Records.

Other notable Straight artists included Tim Buckley, and Judy Henske & Jerry Yester. These musicians came to the label through association with manager Herb Cohen.

Starting in 1972 some Straight recordings were re-issued by Reprise Records or Warner Bros. Records. By 1973 Straight and Bizarre were discontinued. The first issue of Love It to Death by Alice Cooper was on Straight, though by the time it became a massive hit the album had already been re-issued on Warner Bros. In place of their previous labels Zappa and Cohen created a new label, DiscReet Records, also distributed by Warner Bros. The Zappa/Cohen business partnership ended acrimoniously in 1976. At that time Zappa retained ownership of his work and Herb Cohen assumed ownership of most of the non-Zappa material.

In 1988 and 1989 Straight recordings by Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper, Tim Buckley, The GTOs, The Persuasions, and Lord Buckley were briefly re-issued on CD and cassette by the Enigma Retro label. Since the early 1990's the ownership of some Straight Records recordings has become unclear. This has apparently prevented further re-issues of some of this material.