We're Only in It for the Money

Recording began on 6 March 1967 at TTG with the basic track for Who Needs the Peace Corps?, but the main sessions ran from July to September 1967 at Mayfair Studios in New York, with final overdubs and mixing at Apostolic Studios from 3 to 8 October. Zappa produced, with Wilson as executive producer. Collins had left, so Zappa sang most of the leads, pitched up slightly in post-production. Engineer Gary Kellgren whispers on the record. At Apostolic Zappa found that the strings of the grand piano resonated when someone spoke near them, and had people improvise dialogue there, among them Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and Tim Buckley.

The cover, arranged by Cal Schenkel and Jerry Schatzberg, parodies Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Jimi Hendrix took part in the shoot. Zappa told Down Beat in 1971 that it was designed to show the Beatles, not the Mothers, were only in it for the money. The parody was placed inside the gatefold and the intended inner artwork used on the front; later reissues restored the intended cover. Zappa reversed a verse of Mother People that Verve had asked him to remove and used it in the dialogue track Hot Poop. His 1984 remix added new bass and drum parts by Arthur Barrow and Chad Wackerman.

Barret Hansen wrote in Rolling Stone in April 1968 that the album contained by far the largest dose of composed electronic music ever heard on a rock record. Robert Christgau gave the Rykodisc CD an A and wrote "Cheap sarcasm is forever." Uncut called it a satirical psych-rock gem. It peaked at 30 on the Billboard 200, the highest of any Mothers album, and the National Recording Registry added it in 2005, calling it a scathing satire on hippiedom and America's reactions to it.