Format LP record Genre Comedy rock, pop | Recorded October 30, 1977 Length 3:16 | |
Released March 3, 1979 (1979-03-03) Venue The Palladium, New York City | ||
"Jewish Princess" is a song by Frank Zappa released on his album Sheik Yerbouti in 1979. The song is a humorous look at the Jewish-American princess stereotype which attracted attention from the Anti-Defamation League, to which Zappa denied an apology, arguing: "Unlike the unicorn, such creatures do exist — and deserve to be 'commemorated' with their own special opus". In an interview with Spin magazine he was almost offended saying, "…as if to say there is no such thing as a Jewish Princess. Like I invented this?"
Biographer Barry Miles claimed in his book, Frank Zappa (Atlantic Books of London, 2005), that the ADL asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ban the record from being played on the air - a symbolic effort given that the song was not being played anyway. This led to the rumor that a legal action had been filed against Zappa, a charge he vehemently denied in a CNN interview on "The Freeman Report" show of October 26, 1981. Zappa claimed that offensive songs such as this are why Sheik Yerbouti became one of his best selling albums of all time. Although it had little play in concert, it was included on Zappa's theme collection Have I Offended Someone?