| The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life | ||||
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| Live album by | ||||
| Released | April 16, 1991 | |||
| Recorded | February 14 – June 6, 1988, at Munich; Würzburg; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Rotterdam; Brighton; Strasbourg; Binghamton, New York; Grenoble; Linz; Modena; Philadelphia; London; Pittsburgh; Teaneck, New Jersey; Poughkeepsie, New York; Syracuse, New York; Detroit; Vienna; and Florence | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 131:13 | |||
| Label | Barking Pumpkin | |||
| Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
| Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life is a double-disc live album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in 1991. The album was one of four that were recorded during the 1988 world tour; the other three were Broadway the Hard Way (released in 1988), Make a Jazz Noise Here (released in 1991), and Zappa '88: The Last U.S. Show (posthumously released in 2021).
Each of the first three accounts of the 1988 tour has a different emphasis: Broadway the Hard Way mainly consists of new compositions; Make a Jazz Noise Here is a sampler of classic Zappa tunes, most of them instrumental; and The Best Band... devotes itself to cover songs. Some of these are unlikely, such as "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin, while many are from Zappa's extensive back catalogue. His mid-1970s output is emphasized in the selection, but there is also some material from the Mothers of Invention's late 1960s recordings and one song ("Lonesome Cowboy Burt") from 200 Motels. It was re-issued in 1995 and 2012 along with his entire catalogue.
The album is also notable for its extended section of potshots against American Pentecostal televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who had then just confessed to transgressions with a prostitute on live television; the speech was later dubbed his "I have sinned" speech. "Lonesome Cowboy Burt", "More Trouble Every Day" and "Penguin in Bondage" feature entirely rewritten lyrics to capitalize on and satirize the scandal.