Joe's Garage Act l
by Frank Zappa
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Frank Zappa bestography
Joe's Garage Act l is ranked 11th best out of 125 albums by Frank Zappa on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Frank Zappa is Hot Rats which is ranked number 240 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 6,553.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Joe's Garage Act l on YouTube
Joe's Garage Act l track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Joe's Garage Act l rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 6 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | TroutMaskGreg | Top 34 Music Albums of 1979 | 5/34 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Sandrof1969 | Top 35 Music Albums of 1979 | 25/35 | 2 |
| 2026 | stangetzaway | Top 49 Music Albums of 1979 | 21/49 | 3 |
| 2026 | brent13 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | 14/100 | 17 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 99 Music Albums of 1979 | 26/99 | 4 |
| 2026 | brent13 | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 47/100 | 52 |
| 2026 |  neilgee | Top 100 Music Albums of 1979 | 14/100 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Glitterboiii | Top 50 Music Albums of 1979 | 30/50 | 2 |
| 2026 | brent13 | Top 14 Music Albums of 1979 | 2/14 | 5 |
| 2026 | zsolti | Top 67 Music Albums of the 1970s | 36/67 | 10 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 140 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 427 | |||
Joe's Garage Act l collection
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Joe's Garage Act l ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 279 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/23/2026 17:05 | Johnnyo | 9,846 | 77/100 |
| ! | 09/17/2026 22:14 | matterhornrider | 5,196 | 81/100 |
| ! | 01/20/2026 08:18 | Exist-en-ciel | 16,265 | 70/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.2/100, a mean average of 77.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.8.
Joe's Garage Act l favourites
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Joe's Garage Act l forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 12/01/2024 17:00 in Monthly overall chart movements - November 2024View latest topic →
neilgee 10/28/2019 19:28 in What album are you listening to right now?View all forum mentions
Joe's Garage Act l comments
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paladisiac TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/17/2013 20:00 | #61843 | TOP COMMENT
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This is one of those albums that most people wouldn't know what to do with. It's part broadway musical, part dr. demento -sounding parody, part discombobulated doo-wop-r&b-synth-arena-rock with a lot of interspersed narrative. It's a perverted mess. Sometimes i really like it. Sometimes it just tries too much and falls awkwardly flat. It's also a concept album about Joe and his garage... (Edited)
Zappa fans can be broken into two basic categories -- those who think his music went downhill after 1975 and those who think Joe's Garage and Sheik Yerbouti are two of his best albums. Since I fall into the former camp, I rate Joe Garage Act 1 low. Crew Slut, Wet T-Shirt Night and Catholic Girls are crude and unsubtle. I thought it was great when I was 14, but feel the opposite now.
Mother Nature's Son TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/27/2014 14:34 | #110204 | TOP COMMENT
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Okay, this actually might be the album (all three acts and not only the first act as shown here) that finally made me appreciate Frank Zappa. I agree, it's a mess and the humour is also pretty dumb, but it definitely also has its charm including some actual quality music - ranging from super silly reflecting its lyrics to beautiful guitar soloing. Especially want to recommend "Watermelon in Easter Hay" (in act III), which might be Zappa's finest 9 minutes!
Also, it seems there's some confusion about the release of the album(s), which is fully understandable. "Joe's Garage Act I" was released in 1979, the same year as act II and III, which were included in one album. Not until 1987 were all three acts included in one triple album. It does explain why the album that contains two thirds of the whole rock opera is rated so much lower than this album that only contains one third. (Edited)
The sheer fact that Joe's Garage EXISTS is astounding. This is satire in the same vein as "Dr. Strangelove" except far more crude and zainy. Along with "we're only in it for the money", this album shows that Zappa was way ahead of his time. Gives you a taste of the many sides of Frank Zappa's musical personality all on one disc, though certainly not all of them (he had many, many, many musical sides). I cannot get these ridiculous tunes out of my head.
joannajewsom 12/30/2009 08:25 | #7969 | TOP COMMENT
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gimme that, gimme that blow job
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