From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
ZZ Top is a rock band, most prominent in the 1970s and 1980s, from Texas. The band members are Billy Gibbons (vocals and guitar, of Moving Sidewalks), Dusty Hill (guitar, of The American Blues) and Frank Beard (drums, of The Cellar Dwellers, The Hustlers, and The American Blues).
As well as a distinctive guitar sound and hard-driving lyrics, the band is probably best known for its distinctive look. Gibbons and Hill are always pictured wearing sunglasses, trenchcoats and their trademark waist-length beards. (Frank Beard, interestingly, does not wear a beard.) In 1984, the Gillette company offered Gibbons and Hill $1 million apiece to shave their beards for a commercial, but they declined.
Their biggest hit was the 1983 album Eliminator, boosted to prominence by music videos for the tracks "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man".
Discography:
- ZZ Top's First Album (1970)
- Rio Grande Mud (1972)
- Tres Hombres (1973)
- Fandango (1975)
- Tejas (1976)
- Best of ZZ Top (1977)
- Degüello (1979)
- El Loco (1981)
- Eliminator (1983)
- Afterburner (1985)
- Recycler (1990)
- ZZ Top's Greatest Hits (1992)
- Antenna (1994)
- Rhythmeen (1996)
- XXX (1999)
- Mescalero (2003)
- "Cheap Sunglasses"
- "La Grange"
- "Nationwide"
- "Tush"
- "Velcro Fly"
- also, the songs listed under "Music Videos" below
- "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (1983)
- "Sharp Dressed Man" (1983)
- "Legs" (1984)
- "Sleeping Bag"
- "Viva Las Vegas"
- Billy Gibbons has often been referred to as The Reverend Willy G. In 2002, he made that title official and was ordained so he could perform a Dallas wedding.
- In December 1984, Dusty Hill accidentally set off a Derringer he kept in his boot and shot himself in the stomach. He fully recovered.
- "La Grange" is a song about a brothel. The real name of the brothel is "Gracie's Chicken Farm". This brothel is also the subject of the film The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds.
- The band starred, as themselves, in the film "Back To The Future III".
