Now there's one artist I didn't follow, just because the critics told me to. In high school (69 to 72) I didn't know anyone who listened to him, and the local rock stations only played his stuff on occasion in the wee hours of the night. It wasn't exactly easy to become exposed to his music, because it had little commercial exposure.
I finally did buy one of his later records in the mid eighties. I think it was 'Zoot Allures', from 1976. There were some catchy tunes on there, but in listening to it, I could see why Zappa never caught on in a big way, commercially. His was a unique brand of quirky.
Most people think of Zappa as a novelty act, with the songs like “Dancin’ Fool” and “Valley Girl”.
I remember the first time I heard “Peaches en Regalia” and found out it was Zappa, totally blew me away, I had no idea the same guy that did those “novelty” songs did something like that.