Fun House

Don Gallucci, once the keyboard player of the Kingsmen, produced the second album. He told Elektra's Jac Holzman the Stooges were an interesting group but that he doubted the feeling could be put on tape. The band stayed at the Tropicana Motel near Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles and recorded from 11 to 25 May 1970. They and Gallucci stripped the studio of its usual equipment and soundproofing, put no baffles between the amplifiers, and had Pop sing through a handheld microphone. The vibration of the bass amplifier audibly rattles the snare drum. Ron Asheton recalled a track a day in album order, and never more than four takes of anything. Pop said Howlin' Wolf was pertinent for him on the record. Steve Mackay played tenor saxophone on the last three tracks.

The Stooges meant Loose to open the album, but Elektra preferred Down on the Street, and a version of it with a Gallucci organ overdub was the single. Roy Hollingworth of Melody Maker called the album the worst record of the year. Tangari of Pitchfork wrote that Gallucci recorded it as though it were a live album, and described L.A. Blues as a fiery freakout with no pretense of song structure. Rolling Stone ranked it 191 in 2003 and 94 in 2020. It had sold 89,000 copies by March 2000. A seven-disc Rhino box, 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions, came out in 1999, with 3,000 copies pressed. In 2005 the band played the whole album at an All Tomorrow's Parties Don't Look Back event.