page_title: ZZ Top
section_title: Eliminator, Afterburner, and Recycler (1983–1991)
hierarchical_section_title: ZZ Top / History / Eliminator, Afterburner, and Recycler (1983–1991)
caption_attribution_description: ZZ Top, Drammenshallen, Norway, October 20th 1983
context_page_description: ZZ Top is an American rock band from Houston, Texas, formed in 1969. The group consists of founder Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard. Initially rooted in blues, ZZ Top's style has evolved throughout their career, with a signature sound based on Gibbons' blues guitar style and Hill and Beard's rhythm section. Their lyrics, often embellished with sexual innuendo, focus on their Texas roots and humor. Popular for their live performances, the group has staged several elaborate tours.
  ZZ Top formed after the demise of Gibbons' previous band, Moving Sidewalks. Within a year, they signed with London Records and released ZZ Top's First Album. Subsequent releases, such as their first top-ten album Tres Hombres and the singles "La Grange" and "Tush", gained extensive radio airplay. By the mid-1970s, they had become renowned in North America for their live act, highlighted by their performances during the Worldwide Texas Tour from 1976 to 1977, which made them national stars and was a critical and commercial success.
context_section_description: ZZ Top's next album was even more successful. Eliminator, released in March 1983, featured two top-40 singles ("Gimme All Your Lovin'" and "Legs"), and two additional Top Rock hits ("Got Me Under Pressure" and "Sharp Dressed Man"), with "Legs" peaking at number 13 on the Club Play Singles chart. Eliminator saw the band embracing synthesizers and elements of new wave music, and became a critical and commercial success, selling more than 10 million copies while peaking at No. 9 in the U.S. Billboard pop charts. Several music videos from the album were in regular rotation on MTV. The band also won their first MTV Video Music Awards in the categories of Best Group Video for "Legs", and Best Direction for "Sharp Dressed Man". The music videos were included in their Greatest Hits video, which was later released on DVD and quickly went multiple-platinum. However, the Eliminator album was not without controversy. According to former stage manager David Blayney in his book "Sharp Dressed Men", sound engineer Linden Hudson co-wrote much of the material on the album while serving as a live-in high-tech music teacher to Beard and Gibbons. Despite continued denials by the band, it settled a five-year legal battle with Hudson, paying him $600,000 after he proved he held the copyright to the song "Thug".
  Despite not selling as many copies as Eliminator, 1985's Afterburner became the band's highest-charting album (No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard chart), racking up sales of five million units. All of the singles from Afterburner were Top-40 hits, with two ("Sleeping Bag" and "Stages") hitting number one on the Mainstream Rock chart. The music video for "Velcro Fly" was choreographed by pop singer Paula Abdul. ZZ Top's grueling Afterburner World Tour lasted well into 1987, which also had the release of The ZZ Top Sixpack, a three-disc collection of ZZ Top's albums from 1970 to 1981, with the exception of Degüello. The albums ZZ Top's First Album, Rio Grande Mud, Tres Hombres, Fandango, and Tejas were remixed to have a more contemporary sound.
  Recycler, released in 1990, was ZZ Top's last studio album under contract with Warner Records. Recycler was also the last of a distinct sonic trilogy in the ZZ Top catalogue, marking a return towards a simpler guitar-driven blues sound with less synthesizer and pop bounce than the previous two albums. This move did not entirely suit the fan base that Eliminator and Afterburner had built up, and while Recycler did achieve platinum status, it never matched the sales of those albums. However, the single "My Head's in Mississippi" did reach No. 1 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart that year.
caption: Hill and Gibbons in 1983
exif: {}