The Mothers of Invention ( B5 )

 It was produced by Zappa, with Wilson credited as executive producer. From then on, Zappa produced all albums released by the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. We're Only in It for the Money featured some of the most creative audio editing and production yet heard in pop music, and the songs ruthlessly satirized the hippie and flower power phenomena. The cover photo parodied that of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, its art provided by Cal Schenkel whom Zappa had met in New York. This initiated a lifelong collaboration in which Schenkel designed covers for numerous Zappa and Mothers albums.

Reflecting Zappa's eclectic approach to music, the next album, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968), was very different. It represented a collection of doo-wop songs; listeners and critics were not sure whether the album was a satire or a tribute. Zappa has noted that the album was conceived in the way Stravinsky's compositions were in his neo-classical period: "If he could take the forms and clichés of the classical era and pervert them, why not do the same ... to doo-wop in the fifties?" A theme from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is heard during one song.

Return to Los Angeles and break up (1968–1969)

Zappa and the Mothers of Invention returned to Los Angeles in the summer of 1968. Despite being a success with fans in Europe, the Mothers of Invention were not faring well financially. Their first records were vocally oriented, but Zappa wrote more instrumental jazz and classical oriented music for the band's concerts, which confused audiences. Zappa felt that audiences failed to appreciate his "electrical chamber music". Recorded from September 1967 to September 1968 and released in early 1969, Uncle Meat, the final release by the original Mothers, was a double album of varied music, intended as a soundtrack for a proposed film of the same name.

In November 1968, after Collins had left for the final time, Zappa recruited future Little Feat guitarist Lowell George to replace him.

In 1969, there were nine band members and Zappa was supporting the group himself from his publishing royalties, whether they played or not. 

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