1960s

Among Zappa earliest professional recordings are two scores for the low-budget films The World's Greatest Sinner (1962) and Run Home Slow (1965). In 1963, he began playing professionally around Los Angeles and bought the small Pal Recording Studio in Rancho Cucamonga, California, which included a unique 5-track tape recorder built by Paul Buff. At this time, only a handful of the most expensive commercial studios had multitrack facilities, the industry standard for smaller studios was still mono or two-track. Zappa renamed the studio "Studio Z," moved into it, and began routinely working 12 hours or more per day. This set a pattern that would endure for almost all of his life.

While at "Studio Z", Zappa accepted an offer of $100 to produce a suggestive tape for a customer's stag party. Zappa and a female friend jokingly faked an "erotic" recording. Unfortunately, the customer was an undercover member of the Vice Squad and Zappa was jailed for ten days on charges of supplying pornography. His entrapment and brief imprisonment left a permanent mark, and was a key event in the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance.

After a short career as a professional songwriter — his elegiac "Memories of El Monte" was recorded by Doo-Wop group The Penguins — in 1964 Zappa joined a local R&B band, The Soul Giants, as a guitarist. Soon he assumed leadership, renaming the band "The Mothers." They gradually began to gain attention on the burgeoning Los Angeles underground "freak scene" and in 1965 they were spotted by leading record producer Tom Wilson, who had earned acclaim as the producer for Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel. Wilson was also notable as one of the few African-Americans working as a major label pop producer at this time. Wilson signed The Mothers to the Verve label, which had built up a strong reputation for its modern jazz recordings in the 1940s and 1950s, but was then attempting to diversify into pop and rock, with an "artistic" or "experimental" bent. Verve Records insisted that the band officially re-titled themselves "The Mothers of Invention" because "Mother" was short for "motherfucker" — a term that apart from its profane meanings can denote a skilled musician.[10] Around this time, Zappa also met and signed with longtime manager Herb Cohen.