“Peaches En Regalia” by Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa put "Peaches en Regalia" on Hot Rats in 1969, and the instrumental is jazz fusion at its most gleefully ornate, so crammed with twists that it landed in the underground edition of The Real Book, a jazz composer's badge of insider cred, despite being far knottier than the usual jam-session fare. Zappa composed, arranged and produced it and plays guitar, bass and percussion himself; Ian Underwood piles on clarinet, flute, saxophone, organ and piano, with Shuggie Otis on bass and Ron Selico on drums.

Zappa kept it close for years, often using it to open or close his shows, and in 1987 it went out as a CD single to push Rykodisc's reissues of his catalog. It has a second life on the BBC, too: theme music for the old BBC2 show One Man's Week, and background music for Danny Baker on BBC London and for Elis James and John Robins on Radio 5 Live.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.