ZZ Top Eliminator released

Eliminator ZZ Top

Released: March 23, 1983 Peak: 9 US, 3 UK, 2 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 11.0 US, 1.2 UK, 23.4 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Gimme All Your Lovin’ (4/2/83, 37 BB, 43 CB, 36 GR, 2 AR, 10 UK, 39 CN, 87 AU, 8 DF) Got Me Under Pressure (4/16/83, 18 AR, 18 DF) Sharp Dressed Man (7/9/83, 56 BB, 83 CB, 8 AR, 22 UK, 66 AU, 6 DF) I Need You Tonight I Got the Six Legs (4/14/84, 8 BB, 11 CB, 9 GR, 5 RR, 3 AR, 16 UK, 9 CN, 6 AU, 6 DF) Thug TV Dinners (12/10/83, 38 AR, 67 UK, 37 DF) Dirty Dog If I Could Only Flag Her Down Bad Girl Total Running Time: 45:00 The Players: Billy Gibbons (vocals, guitar) Dusty Hill (bass, vocals) Frank Beard (drums)

Rating: 4.185 out of 5.00 (average of 24 ratings) Quotable: “An electro-boogie masterpiece” – author Robert Dimery Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: ZZ Top formed in the 1960s as a Texas-based blues-rock trio. They made five albums for London Records in the 1970s, including the multi-platinum top-10 Tres Hombes in 1973. They also landed a few classic rock staples with “La Grange” and “Tush.” In 1978, they signed with Warners. Their 1979 platinum-selling Deguello “demonstrated with a series of wry, surreal songs, that ZZ Top were not the simple, rustic trio that most people had taken them for in the past.” TB 1981’s gold-selling El Loco “continued in a similar vein, adding a smutty sense of humor to songs such as ‘Pearl Necklace’ and ‘Tube Snake Boogie.’” TB For their next movie, the trio surprised their fans by embracing the “synths and sequencers” AM while still retaining “the driving blues guitars of previous ZZ Top albums” TB for 1983’s Eliminator. “They plunged in with such aplomb that drummer Frank Beard was suspected of having been drum-machined off the tracks. In truth, his crisp beats and Dusty Hill’s chugging bass are merely supports for the star: guitarist Billy Gibbons – forever wrapping furry likc round the wry lyrics, but never overinduldging like lesser soloists.” RD In trying to keep up with “the sound of the times” AM the band “risked looking like the embarrassing uncles. Instead they conjured an electro-boogie masterpiece” RD that became the biggest-selling album of the band’s career. “It wasn't that they were just popular – they were hip, for God’s sake, since they were one of the only AOR favorites to figure out to harness the stylish, synthesized grooves of new wave, and then figure out how to sell it on MTV.” AM “Even if they didn’t quite look the part, ZZ Top’s songs about fast cars and faster women were suddenly in vogue.” TB making them “rivaled only by Michael Jackson when it came to heavy MTV rotation in 1983.” TB As Beard said, “We decided that the girls were a lot better looking than we were and that the car was even better looking than we were.” RD The videos “established a strong visual image for the band,” TB populated “with scantily clad beauties as well as the obligatory red coupe.” TB The latter image played off one of “the most iconic album covers of the 1980s” TB – the “airbrushed image of a red Ford coupe.” TB Gimme All Your Lovin’ and Legs were MTV staples during the music channel’s formative years” TB but it also helped that the band had crafted “songs that deserved to be hits.” AM Alongside the two aforementioned songs, they also had Sharp Dressed Man. This was the band’s “greatest set of singles since the heady days of Tres Hombres.” AM Even the album cuts, such as “the elegiac I Need You Tonight and the slap-happy bass showcase Thug,” RD were high enough quality that “they would have been singles on El Loco.” AM “The songs alone would have made Eliminator one of ZZ Top’s three greatest albums…Years later, the sound of the times winds up sounding a bit stiff. It’s still an excellent ZZ Top album, one of their best, yet it sounds like a mechanized ZZ Top thanks to the unflaggingly accurate grooves. Then again, that’s part of the album’s charm – this is new wave blues-rock, glossed up for the video, looking as good as the omnipresent convertible on the cover and sounding as irresistible as Reaganomics. Not the sort the old-school fans or blues-rock purists will love, but ZZ Top never sounded as much like a band of its time as they did here.” AM

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 511. TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 220. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 4/28/2008; last updated 6/25/2025.

ZZ Top “La Grange” charted

La Grange ZZ Top

Writer(s): Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, Frank Beard (see lyrics here) First Charted: March 30, 1974 Peak: 41 US, 24 CB, 33 HR, 24 RR, 1 CL, 34 CN, 15 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 264.42 video, 396.46 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: ZZ Top was formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The blues-style rock band consisted of singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons, singer/bassist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard. “The trio had the attention of their peers right from the start;” UCR Jimi Hendrix referred to Gibbons as “America’s best young guitarist.” UCR They were also “developing a reputation as a powerful live band.” UCR However, they did not find commercial success right away. Their 1971 debut failed to chart and the follow-up, 1972’s Rio Grande Mud, stalled at #104 on the Billboard album chart. Their fortunes changed with 1973’s Tres Hombres, which reached #8 and went gold, largely because of the success of the group’s “La Grange.” The song just missed the top-40 on the Billboard Hot 100, but became an album-rock staple and the group’s “ubiquitous musical calling card.” UCR The song is “a loving lyrical tribute to Texas’s favorite little whorehouse,” UCR a brothel later known as the Chicken Ranch and celebrated in the Broadway play and film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. WK “It’s a testament to both the song’s immediate appeal and enduring quality that despite all this airplay and multi-media placement, it’s still a thrill every time Gibbons launches into his deep growl for that famous intro: ‘Rumour spreadin’ a-’round in that Texas town / ‘Bout that shack outside La Grange ...’” UCR In a bit of irony, the intent to immortalize Miss Edna’s boarding house got it shut down. DT The song’s groove is based on John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen.” WK “That fuzz sound in the lead and in the front and back end of the composition is just pure tube distortion.’” UCR Cash Box called the song “a hard driving delight certain to satisfy those fans of heavy blues.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for ZZ Top DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 260. UCR UltimateClassicRock.com (6/20/2013). “Top 100 Classic Rock Songs” WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/3/2022; last updated 4/1/2023.