Today would have been the 57th birthday of the late Frank Vincent Zappa. Zappa recorded over 60 albums that spanned many genres, including rock, jazz and funk, and continues to be a major influence on such acts as Primus and Phish. The eldest son of a guitar-playing government scientist, Zappa became, at a young age, obsessed with '50s rock 'n' roll and contemporary composers such as Stravinsky and Edgard Varese, an obsession that would last a lifetime. In high school, he formed his first band, the Black-Outs; around the same time he met Don Van Vliet and reportedly dubbed him Captain Beefheart. After stints as a student, a lounge musician and a film scorer, Zappa built a recording studio in Cucamonga, Calif., and began working in 1964 with the Soul Giants (which included vocalist Ray Collins, drummer Jimmy Carl Black, saxophonist Dave Coronada and bassist Roy Estrada). The group was later re-named the Muthers, then the Mothers, and then, finally, the Mothers of Invention by MGM/Verve records, who were wary of the band's outlandish nature. Their first album, the appropriately titled Freak Out!, was released in 1966 and remains one of the most important and influential rock albums of all time.

A litany of satirical, culturally challenging albums followed: 1967's orchestral Lumpy Gravy, the 1968 hippie send-up We're Only in It for the Money and a tribute to '50s doo-wop entitled Crusing with Ruben & the Jets, also in 1968. Following the release of 1969's Uncle Meat, Zappa married his second wife, Gail, with whom he would have his children: Moon Unit, Diva, Dweezil and Ahmet Rodan. During the early 1970s, Zappa began scoring films again, having temporarily disbanded the Mothers. The group re-formed, but critics were beginning to look cynically upon the band's penchant for wild humor. Zappa continually ran into trouble on obscenity charges, but he continued on making such songs as "Dynamo Hum" and "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow." In 1977, he retired the Mothers name, instead using his own last name for future works, and in 1979 released Sheik Yerbouti. The album featured "Jewish Princess," a song that led the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League to file a complaint with the FCC. It also included a surprise hit single with "Dancin' Fool." Problems regarding Zappa's 1980 recording of "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted" -- his label at the time, Mercury, refused to release it -- led to the founding of his Barking Pumpkin label. Zappa continued producing solo works, specializing in satirizing American culture and, more often than not, offending the political and religious right. In the mid-1980s, he got very political, taking time out to battle the Parent's Music Resource Center and to work on getting people to register to vote. He began dabbling in classical work with Pierre Boulez, culminating in 1984's Boulez Conducts Zappa/ The Perfect Stranger. He won his first Best Rock Instrumental Performance Grammy for 1986's Jazz From Hell and then won again in 1993 for "Sofa." Zappa died of prostate cancer on December 4, 1993. He was 52 years old.

Other birthdays: Carla Thomas, 55; Carl Wilson (Beach Boys), 51; and Allan Johnson (Real Life), 40.