The first song released from the project was "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera" ("Grocer Jack") recorded by Keith West in 1967.

According to Wirtz, he had been working on an idea for a rock opera since January 1966, when he was experimenting in his London studio and produced a piece of music entitled "A Touch of Velvet – A Sting of Brass", under the name of "Mood Mosaic".

[1] They decided to call it Excerpt from A Teenage Opera, to imply there was more to come and the recording was produced as part of the Mood Mosaic project.

[1] The title was inspired by producer Kim Fowley, who had a tendency to add an adjective "teenage" to a noun.

[5] The basic concept of A Teenage Opera was a series of sketches featuring different characters who lived in a fantasy village.

[7] The first song, "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera" (Grocer Jack) was recorded by Keith West, and was played to EMI's product manager, Roy Featherstone, who reacted with bafflement.

[5] In 1996 a 23-tracks album featuring performances by Keith West, Tomorrow, Wirtz, Kippington Lodge, the Sweetshop, Zion de Gallier, and Steve Flynn was released.

[7] Wirtz took an unused backing track from an old recording of his, a song called "Love Will Always Find A Way" and Steve Howe was asked to overdub the guitar.

The song itself featured the "Opera" trademark, the children's chorus, with singers from Corona Stage School.

[10] It was only kept off the number 1 spot by Engelbert Humperdinck's The Last Waltz and the enormous success of Grocer Jack got the media's attention.

[1] Wirtz meanwhile completed "(He's Our Dear Old) Weatherman" (which had started out as "The Paranoiac Woodcutter"); this was the most complex recording so far, containing more than 100 different sounds.

The tracks are as follows:[7] In July 2017, it was announced that a stage show for 'A Teenage Opera' has been written, with script and additional lyrics by Pete Gallagher and featuring the songs of Wirtz and West, produced by Youth Music Theatre UK.

Its world premiere would have been held at South Hill Park arts centre in Bracknell on 11 August, with the hope of transferring the production to London.