Orchestral Favorites
| Orchestral Favorites | ||||
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| Live album by Frank Zappa | ||||
| Released | May 4, 1979 | |||
| Recorded | Royce Hall, UCLA September 19, 1975 |
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| Genre | Symphonic rock | |||
| Length | 33:57 | |||
| Label | DiscReet Records | |||
| Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
| Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
Orchestral Favorites is an album by Frank Zappa first released in May 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. The album is instrumental and features music performed by the 37-piece Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra.
The album's creation was spurred by Warner Bros' rejection of Zappa's Läther album. After demanding more albums than Zappa was contractually obliged to provide and reediting the live album Zappa in New York, a lawsuit ensued, during which Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites were issued without Zappa's permission.
In early 1976 Zappa's relationship with manager and business partner Herb Cohen ended in litigation. Zappa and Cohen's company DiscReet Records was distributed by Warner Bros. Records. When Zappa asked for a re-assignment of his contract from DiscReet to Warner in order to advance the possibility of doing special projects without Cohen's involvement, Warner briefly agreed. This led to the 1976 release of Zoot Allures on Warner. Early in 1977, Zappa delivered the master tapes for a quadruple-LP set, entitled Läther. However, Warner changed its position following legal action from Cohen, and refused to release the album, claiming that Zappa was contractually bound to deliver four more albums to Warner for the DiscReet label.
During 1977 Zappa created the individual albums Zappa In New York, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites by re-editing recordings from the same batch of tapes that made up the 4-LP configuration. After Warner Bros. released Zappa In New York, they told him that he still owed them four more albums. He then attempted to get a distribution deal with Phonogram Inc. to release Läther on the new Zappa Records label. This led Warner to threaten legal action, preventing the release of Läther and forcing Zappa to shelve the project. In 1978 and 1979 Warner finally decided to release the three remaining individual albums they still held, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites. As Zappa had delivered the tapes only, these three individual albums were released with no musical credits. Warner also commissioned sleeve art by Gary Panter, which was not approved by Zappa. The material was first released on CD in 1991, along with Panter's artwork. Panter would later provide additional art for the album when it was reissued in 1995. Much of the material on Orchestral Favorites was made available to the public again in a different form when the alternate version of Läther was posthumously released in 1996.
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