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ZZ Top
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Miami Vice Performer
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Current Members
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Billy Gibbons (born December 16, 1949)
Dusty Hill (May 15, 1949 - July 28, 2021) Frank Beard (born June 11, 1949) |
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Active
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1969-present
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ZZ Top is an American rock and blues band, who performed the songs "Tush", "Legs", and "Sharp Dressed Man" in the show Miami Vice.
Career[]
ZZ Top is the longest tenured band in rock history (52 years, The Four Tops members are second with 44 years together) and their style has not changed much in those years. The band consists of guitarist/vocalist Billy Gibbons, bassist/vocalist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard. Gibbons & Hill typically play guitar and move in sync, all three members usually wear sunglasses (even inside), and Gibbons/Hill wear bandannas and leather. Gibbons & Hill also are known for their trademark unshaven beards, the Gillette company offered the duo $1 million each to shave their beards for a TV commercial, which they graciously declined.
In 1969 the band got together and began touring and recording albums in 1970. In 1973 ZZ Top opened for The Rolling Stones and released their album Tres Hombres, which became their first million-seller and their first single, La Grange, was released. In 1975 their album Fandango! was released, featuring their hit song "Tush". Their Texas tours continued to grow in attendance. After their 1976 album Tejas was released, the band took time off, then after their 1979 album Deguello their career began to take off, with the release of their singles "Cheap Sunglasses" and "I Thank You". In 1983, their album Eliminator was released. About the same time MTV was heating up as a release point for videos, so the band added synth vibes to their guitar/bass/drum sounds, making them more appealing in a mainstream audience, and releasing videos. Their first two releases, "Gimme All Your Lovin'" and "Sharp Dressed Man" were modest hits on the Billboard Hot 100, but received heavy MTV video airplay along with their third single, a remixed version of "Legs" (which reached the Top 10, a first for the band), with the centerpiece of each video, a red 1933 Ford coupe called "The Eliminator" and three scantily-clad women featured, and "Legs" introduced the group's famous white wool "spinning guitars". 1986's Afterburner was a continuation of the Eliminator sound, though the car was now transformed into a space shuttle, and they had two more Top 10 singles, "Sleeping Bag" and "Rough Boy", plus their dance song "Velcro Fly". 1990's "Recycler" couldn't duplicate the success of the previous two, and no singles reached the Top 10, though their song for the movie Back To The Future Part III, "Doubleback", did. After 1990, the group's record sales came nowhere near their previous success, but they continue then (and now) to play before crowded, enthusiastic audiences. In 2004 the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where their famous Eliminator car currently resides). Their most recent album release was La Futura in 2012. The band resumed touring in 2018, but Dusty Hill's declining health led the group to begin including Hill's guitar tech Elwood Francis on bass. Hill's death on July 28, 2021 at age 72 ended the original trio, though the group planned (as per Hill's wishes) to continue touring using Francis in Hill's bass spot.
Eliminator at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame