"My Mother Is a Space Cadet" is the first single by

Dweezil Zappa Dweezil Zappa (born Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa, September 5, 1969) is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor. He is the son of musical composer and performer Frank Zappa. Exposed to the music industry from an early age, Zappa develo ...

, released in 1982. The song was co-written by sister

Moon Zappa Moon Unit Zappa (born September 28, 1967) is an American actress, singer, and author. She is the daughter of musician Frank Zappa. Early life Moon Zappa was born in New York City, the eldest child of Gail (née Sloatman) and musician Frank Zappa ...

and

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai ( ; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a Transcription (music), transc ...

. Dweezil was 12 years old at the time of the recording, sister

was 14. The back of the single features a picture of the band, which included

Greg Kurstin Gregory Allen Kurstin (born May 14, 1969) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2017 and 2018, and contributed to five songs that pe ...

who would go on to become a successful producer and songwriter. The track was co-produced by

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex V ...

and

Donn Landee Donn Landee is an American record producer and recording engineer. Much of his work as an engineer has been done with producer Ted Templeman at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California. The pair worked with a wide variety of artists f ...

, credited as "The Vards", a pun on Van Halen's mother's pronunciation of his first name Edward). Van Halen also plays the (uncredited) slide guitar that opens the song.

Track listing

#"My Mother Is a Space Cadet" (D. Zappa, M. Zappa, S. Vai) #"Crunchy Water" (D. Zappa, G. Kurstin)

References

Dweezil Zappa songs 1982 singles Songs written by Steve Vai 1982 songs {{1980s-single-stub