Thing-fish
by Frank Zappa
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Frank Zappa bestography
Thing-fish is ranked 57th best out of 124 albums by Frank Zappa on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Frank Zappa is Hot Rats which is ranked number 232 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 6,709.
(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 Thing-fish on YouTube
Thing-fish track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 75 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Thing-fish rankings
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 31 minutes ago).
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  jeremy9 | Top 62 Music Albums of 1984 | 62/62 | 0 |
| 2026 |  Fischman | Top 100 Music Albums of 1984 | 79/100 | 1 |
| 2026 | TroutMaskGreg | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 67/100 | 7 |
| 2025 | mostlymor | Frank Zappa Chronological Order | 38/60 | - |
| 2025 | TroutMaskGreg | Top 18 Music Albums of 1984 | 9/18 | 3 |
| 2024 | Fischman | Frank Zappa Albums Ranked | 50/82 | - |
| 2023 | TroutMaskGreg | Great Googly-Moogly - My Zappa Rankings | 31/44 | - |
| 2023 |  phantom1305 | Top 40 Music Albums of 1984 | 27/40 | 2 |
| 2019 | ReelBigToph | Top 100 Music Albums of 1984 | 86/100 | 1 |
| 2018 | glynspsa | Top 100 Music Albums of 1984 | 79/100 | 1 |
| 2017 |  Captain_Dude | RANKED: FRANK ZAPPA | 29/39 | - |
| 2015 | vancevisuals | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 52/100 | 10 |
| 2010 | ggrop | Top 20 Greatest Music Albums | 15/20 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 13 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 24 | |||
Thing-fish collection
Showing all 17 members who have this album in their collection
Thing-fish 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 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 35 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 05/15/2026 01:21 | brent13 | 2,143 | 67/100 |
| ! | 11/23/2025 19:13 |  TimBroad04 | 203 | 69/100 |
| ! | 01/09/2025 07:08 | jeremy9 | 3,767 | 70/100 |
| ! | 06/29/2024 11:47 | TonySayers61 | 25,157 | 64/100 |
| ! | 06/05/2024 14:18 | LosWochos | 47,361 | 75/100 |
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 has a Bayesian average rating of 62.3/100, a mean average of 59.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 59.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 24.1.
Thing-fish favourites
Showing all 2 members who have added this album as a favourite
Thing-fish comments
Showing all 2 comments |
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Possibly the most bizzare album in my collection. To be listened to in moderation as one may go round the bend during the ear waggling experience. Not really music in the true sense of the word, more a series of odd little tales stitched together with some instrument noodling and spoken drivel. Just to understand the concept, the anger, the satire, requires a degree of boredom from everyday run of the mill musicians and artists. Had Zappa got to a point in his career where he could turn out any old shite and mugs like me would buy it and then try and defend it even suggesting it is clever, a work of genius?
IgnantMcNugget 10/16/2016 08:14 | #176969
12:49 AM Sun. Oct. 16 2016 - Election Overload - Just listened to Thing-Fish I&II for the first time in years and it is an amazingly prescient look at how we got to now. The bone-crushing irony/satire (from 1984!) hits all the topics of our current clusterfuck... racism +/- religion, ignorance +/- hypocrisy, yuppies +/- punks. To me, this album is a funhouse mirror from the past... Surreal but in the end, accurate.
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