Frank Zappa’s love for Halloween is just as well-known as his legendary, genre-bending music. In honor of the holiday, the late multi-hyphenate artist is getting a new box set.

Titled Halloween 78, the release is headlined by a Super Deluxe Costume edition, which features a newly mixed and mastered version of Zappa’s Halloween show from 1978 at New York City’s The Palladium. It spans across five CDs that are housed in signature spooky packaging, showing Zappa donning a ‘70s-inspired devil mask, along with a pitchfork with a UV light (which illuminates “secrets” within the packaging), and a grimoire book featuring concert photos by Lynn Goldsmith, liners and technical notes by Travers and bespoke artwork by Fantoons (who also designed the mask).

Along with the box set, there will be two vinyl releases and a 1CD edition, both containing excerpted concert performances and booklets featuring photos and artwork.

The first 2LP is on 180-gram “Candy Corn” color vinyl with a pop-out paper mask, gatefold packaging, and a booklet with rare photos and bespoke art. The second 2LP is on 180-gram “Blood Spatter” color vinyl, housed in gatefold packaging. The 1CD disc features 15 performances from the four-hour concert, while the Digital Deluxe version has all of the tracks in the 5CD edition and a digital booklet.

The Halloween 78 box set follows a special tradition. With Halloween being Zappa’s favorite holiday, he turned All Hallows’ Eve into an annual concert ritual in New York City. Every year, Zappa would play a run of shows over multiple nights during the holiday. The tradition likely began in New Jersey in 1972, moved to Chicago in 1973, and found its home in New York City by 1974. In 1979, the shows were used as footage in 1979’s Baby Snakes – The Movie.

Halloween 78 marks the first Zappa costume box set in five years. It is the fourth in the series, which began in 2017 with Halloween 77 (Frank Zappa costume), which was followed by 2019’s Halloween 73 (FRANKenZAPPA) and 2020’s Halloween 81 (Count Frankula).

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