Between December 1962 and June 1963, surf band The Tornadoes’ recorded ten songs at Paul Buff’s Pal Recording Studios in Cucamonga. All of these were engineered – and, in the case of Moon Dawg, unofficially produced – by Frank Zappa. Officially, these songs were all produced by Buff’s associate, Dave Aerni. Eight of them appeared on the band’s first long player, Bustin’ Surfboards, released in July 1963.

Also in 1963, after providing the score for Timothy Carey’s film The World’s Greatest Sinner the previous year, Zappa recorded a single with the same title at Pal Studios, credited to Baby Ray & The Ferns (who were FZ, Buff, Dick Barber and Ray Collins).

As a child actor, Kurt Russell appeared in Elvis Presley’s 1963 movie It Happened At The World’s Fair.

As mentioned in Frank Zappa FUQ Vol. 4, guitarist Del Casher appeared in the 1964 Elvis film Roustabout (as an uncredited musician). Elliot Ingber – Del’s predecessor in the Mothers – was an extra in another Presley movie, Spinout, released in October 1966; this led to Zappa dedicating Help, I’m A Rock to Elvis.

The famous Beatles’ famous Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band collage included an image of Timothy Carey (from Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing), but was obscured on the front cover by George Harrison.

After seeing photographer Jerry Schatzberg’s image of the Rolling Stones dressed as women on the back cover of their US single Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?, Zappa got the idea of parodying the Sgt. Pepper sleeve with the Mothers in drag for their We’re Only In It For The Money album. Schatzberg would shoot the cover photo and had Bunk Gardner use the exact same wheelchair that bassist Bill Wyman had sat in for the Stones’ snap.

The infamous We’re Only In It For The Money collage included an image of Elvis with a censor bar across his eyes.

Between 1964 and 1967, Kurt Russell, Timothy Carey and Sharon Tate all appeared in episodes of the US spy-fi TV series, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Phil Kaufman, Zappa’s one time road manager and human trombone who inspired Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?, did time in Terminal Island Prison with Charles Manson, briefly becoming a member of The Manson Family on his release in 1968.

Another Manson Family member, Bobby Beausoleil, was one of the freaks heard ‘singing’ on Help, I’m A Rock. He hung around with Vito Paulekas’s crowd, played guitar and became friendly with Frank, who he says wouldn’t let him join The Mothers “because I didn’t know how to read music.” Beausoleil also appeared in the film Mondo Hollywood, along with singer Bobby Jameson (with his then-girlfriend Gail Sloatman), FZ and Vito.

In 1968, Zappa and Timothy Carey would both appear in The Monkees’ film Head.

Kurt Russell portrayed Presley in the 1979 TV movie Elvis, his first collaboration with director John Carpenter.

Timothy Carey auditioned for the role of Joe Cabot in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992), but ended up just having the screenplay dedicated to him (among others).

In 1994, Bustin’ Surfboards by The Tornadoes (as produced by Dave Aerni) was included in the soundtrack to QT’s Pulp Fiction.

Kurt Russell had an uncredited role as the voice of Elvis Presley in the 1994 film Forrest Gump.

Russell appears in the Tarantino films Death Proof (2007), The Hateful Eight (2015) and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019).

In Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the main protagonists prevent the Tate murders by the Manson Family. The character ‘Top Hat’, played by Ronnie Zappa (no relation), was an alias for Bobby Beausoleil.