When Zappa Met Grand Funk: The Good Singin’ Good Playin’ Album

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Most classic rock fans would probably not put the names Frank Zappa and Grand Funk Railroad in the same sentence. These were two very different rock and roll musical artists who both played a huge role in the story of Classic Rock. But, were there really that different? Both musical artists often displayed humor in their music and even their album covers. Both musical artists enjoyed their greatest success during the 1970s. Perhaps the greatest similarity was both artists’ love for great guitar playing and top-notch musicianship. Of course, if you compare their catalogs, Grand Funk Railroad’s catalog is dwarfed in size by the sheer amount of albums Frank Zappa released. And of course, we are talking about a man in Zappa who is thought of as one of the greatest musical artists across the board in the 20th century.

Grand Funk Railroad had many more hits than Frank Zappa ever did, although any Frank Zappa fan would explain in caps that Frank Zappa’s music had nothing to do with hit singles. In retrospect, it is much easier to argue that Frank Zappa and Grand Funk Railroad had far more diversity in style and career than they had in common. Yet, they did come together for one brief moment in time, sharing their love for great rock and roll music and brilliant guitar playing.

Many people in the present will argue that Grand Funk Railroad is one of the most underrated bands of all time. Their absence from the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame seems to also support that argument. Yet, in their heyday, they were one of the biggest bands in the world. They should have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame twenty years ago. Nonetheless, in the 1970s Grand Funk Railroad had both a huge cult following and extreme mass appeal. They released great rock and roll albums of substance, but were also able to score big time hits, especially in their early to mid-1970s period.

In 1976, the band pretty much came to an end due to what usually breaks up bands, they simply were not getting along anymore, or at least that’s the story. However, before their final break up, the band’s manager Andy Cavaliere had mentioned to the band that he thought Frank Zappa would be great to produce their next album. After reaching out to Frank Zappa, the band would find themselves in the studio working with a man whom many of them felt a little bit intermediated at first to be working with. However, Frank Zappa was a man who appreciated honest and genuine musicianship no matter what style. He understood what Grand Funk was all about.  The result of this collaboration was the release of Grand Funk’s eleventh studio album called Good Singin’ Good Playin’  It remains probably the band’s most underrated album of their career. This was a great one!

Good Singin’ Good Playin’ was released on August 2, 1976. It’s important to remember what was happening in the music business at the time as early disco and pop were dominating radio! Rock and Roll was at a crossroads in 1976. Punk and New Wave had not yet started to infiltrate the music scene. It was a time period that was being dominated by bands like the Bee Gees, KC and The Sunshine Band, Hall & Oates, and many other artists scoring huge success on the charts with sugary pop hits. In the album’s liner notes, Don Brewer explained that rather than compete with all that pop stuff, they just wanted to go into the studio and record a great rock and roll record.  It’s exactly what they did.

Frank Zappa did not set out to change the band. In fact, it was the complete opposite. His goal was to present the real Grand Funk to the world in the way they sounded playing all together at once with no special effects or overdubs changing their sound. Frank Zappa was well known for his brilliant musical compositions and performances. However, what all Zappa fans also knew was how good his albums always sounded. The man knew how to mix and engineer in addition to all his other talents. That talent is apparent instantly on the album’s first track “Just Coundn’t Wait.” Listen to the sound of the drums and bass. They are so sonically tight making them sound almost like one instrument. The piano wraps around the chord changes creating a sonic landscape that sets the table for the shine on vocals of Mark Farner

Following up the album’s opening track is the first single that the band released from the album entitled “Can You Do It. ” Grand Funk had so much success covering old 60s songs like “Locomotion,” and Some Kind of Wonderful. However, their cover of the Contours’ song “Can You Do” failed to become a hit. It wasn’t their fault. The recording of the song is killer. It should have been a big hit, but radio just didn’t play it. I could never understand how a track as good as this one had never become a big hit. It’s simply spectacular. They must have thought it was going to become so huge. The song’s failure to become a hit pretty much doomed sales of the album except for the ones sold to their loyal fans.  It’s so sad because the  Good Singin’ Good Playin’ album sold fewer than one hundred thousand copies. Their previous album also released in 1976 entitled Born To Die also failed to yield a hit single for the band and did not do well either. The times had changed since 1974 when the album All The Girls In The World Beware spawned the huge hit singles “Some Kind of Wonderful,” and “Bad Time.”

One of the highlights of the album is the mostly instrumental track “Out To Get You.” This one was a real rocking barn burner that featured a scorching guitar solo by Frank Zappa. Originally, Mark Farner was supposed to do the guitar solo but he was having a hard time figuring out what to play on the track, and according to Farner was just not feeling it. Farner turned to Frank Zappa and said ” Frank, help me, brother, you got to play a lead.”(*) The rest is history as Frank Zappa without hesitation played that brilliant solo that made the album even more special.

There are so many highlights on the album. From the mesmerizing vocals of “Miss My Baby,” to the funky rocking “Goin For The Pastor,” and the great bonus track “Rubberneck,” which was only released on the CD issue, the album hit a 10 on every track.  It was fitting that the band titled the album Good Singin’ Good Playing’ because that’s what it was really all about. It was Frank Zappa’s vision to capture the true essence of what made Grand Funk such an amazing band, These guys could sing and play as well as anyone else on the rock scene, and if there was ever a Grand Funk album that proved it, Good Singin’ Good Playing’  was the one.

My Cd Copy

*Liner Notes –  Pullen, Doug:  Good Singin Good Playin CD 1999 Universal Music, Univeral City California

When Zappa Met Grand Funk: The Good Singin’ Good Playin’ Album article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2023

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