Which artist has released the most posthumous albums?
Death has a weird effect when it comes to music.
Well, obviously it has a lot of cataclysmic effects on life in general too, but the way in which it captures a sometimes previously stagnant sonic appetite is often overwhelming.
There are countless artists out there whose appeal wasn’t all that alluring in the time they were living and breathing, but the second the Grim Reaper came calling, they were suddenly all the rage. The depressing truth of the matter is that, unfortunately, death sells – and it’s up to those managing the estates to decide whether the mood to capitalise on this state of affairs is the right path to go down.
Of course, this is entering into a debate which very much calls for its own separate space, but the basis of the point still stands. Whether it’s artists like John Lennon, who were already massive and continued to grow upon their passing, or the likes of Eva Cassidy, who never lived to see herself make it big, morbid curiosity is undeniably a major factor in cultivating legacies for musicians long after their last breath.
A group of people who know this all too well are the estate holders of Frank Zappa, who, since the untimely death of their main man back in 1993, have stopped at nothing to keep his spirit and musical tenure alive. In fairness, the fact that they have released no less than 68 posthumous albums on his behalf in the past 32 years is clearly an achievable feat given that Zappa was a constant musical machine throughout his life, but it also creates an unparalleled record.
How has the legacy of Frank Zappa lived on in a posthumous way?
Of course, it’s always bound to be difficult to quantify specific numbers of posthumous releases, as it depends on what you think fits the bill of the label. Does a posthumous release have to consist purely of previously unheard material, or can it include anniversary editions, re-releases, and compilations? It’s frankly a minefield, but one very much open to interpretation.
Either way, Zappa is someone who holds an undisputed crown in this regard, with the number of albums arriving after his death now exceeding the amount produced over the course of his entire lifetime. Having released 62 albums in life and 68 in death, with the most recent two – Cheaper than Cheap and One Size Fits All 50th Anniversary Edition – arriving only this year, it’s fair to say there’s no sign of that train stopping any time soon.
Averaging at delivering two to three albums every year consecutively, it’s not a bad pace of work for a man who has now been on the other side for over three decades. All joking aside, however, the ongoing posthumous calibre of Zappa and so many others only proves that their time on Earth was far too short, and there was just so much greatness left to share that it had to be let out into the world, one way or another. That’s clearly the mark of a legacy team that works hard, but also of someone who simply never stopped until it was, quite literally, all over.
