Hill compared the reaction to Bob Dylan going electric. Many of ZZ Top’s traditional fans were unhappy with the band’s new commercial sound, accusing them of selling out. The promo for Legs won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Group. Backed by distinctive music videos with heavy rotation on MTV, Gimme All Your Lovin, Sharp Dressed Man and Legs were all Top 40 hits in the US with the latter reaching number three in the singles charts. To date it has sold over 20 million copies, making it ZZ Top’s biggest selling album.Įliminator’s success lay heavily in the band’s embracing of music videos. Released on March 23rd, 1983, Eliminator became ZZ Top’s first international hit, reaching number three in the UK and number nine in the US.
ZZ TOP GREATEST HITS TONIGHT TO MIDNIGHT TV
On Side B are Legs Thug TV Dinners Dirty Dog If I Could Only Flag Her Down Bad Girl.
On Side A are Gimme All Your Loving Got Me Under Pressure Sharp Dressed Man I Need You Tonight and I Got the Six. Hill and Beard were largely absent from the recording process with a drum machine replacing Beard and Hudson’s keyboard bass overtaking Hill’s bass guitar.Įliminator features 11 tracks. Gibbons and Hudson would write most of the music and lyrics for Eliminator, with Beard reputedly playing golf throughout most of the process. This first manifested on 1981’s El Loco but really found its footing on ZZ Top’s eighth album Eliminator.Īlong with engineer Linden Hudson, Gibbons became obsessed with using drum machines to create a tight tempo, with most of the songs on the album employing 120 beats per minute, a tempo generally associated with disco up to that point. Gibbons was won over by OMD’s synth sound and decided to incorporate synths and drum machines in to ZZ Top. Also appearing on the show was the New Wave outfit Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). In 1980 ZZ Top made an appearance on the BBC show The Old Grey Whistle Test. When they returned in 1979 with the platinum selling Degüello, Gibbons and Hill were now sporting their iconic beards, making ZZ Top one of the most recognisable bands in rock music. In 1976 the trio took a three year break as Beard attempted to kick his drug addiction. They scored their first US Top 10 album with 1973’s Tres Hombres. They had become a certified rock institution, contemporary in every way, yet still completely connected to the founding fathers of the genre.Formed in Texas in 1979 by vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, later joined by drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, ZZ Top began life as a blues rock outfit. They had become more popular and more iconic without ever having to be flavor of the week. – ZZ Top had accomplished the impossible they had moved with the times while simultaneously bucking ephemeral trends that crossed their path. Recorded over the course of several tours in cities all around the world, Greatest Hits Live picks the greatest moments and biggest hits from ZZ Top’s illustrious back catalog captured with the phenomenal energy of their renowned live performances. Now after over 45 years together, the Texan trio release their first official live album.
With seven Billboard Top 10 albums to their name, multiple platinum album certifications all over the world and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the legendary ZZ Top are officially the world’s longest running rock band with it’s original line-up intact.
2016 live release from the blues/rock trio.
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