History Music / ZZTop

->''Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.''

* '''Dusty Hill''' - bass, lead vocals, keyboard (1969-present)

** Billy Gibbons has a recurring role as himself on ''Series/{{Bones}}''. He's Angela's father, and Hodgins' worst nightmare.

** They also appear in the first ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'' game, but Sierra altered them in later revisions of the remake so they would not be sued, because it was an unauthorized cameo.

* DemotedToExtra: This happened to Dusty and Frank on ''Eliminator'': despite them being credited on the album sleeve, Dusty's bass being replaced by keyboards[[note]]"Thug" and its keyboard slap bass that sounds like it escaped from the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' theme being the more obvious one[[/note]] and Frank by drum machines. For all intents and purposes, ''Eliminator'' is a Billy solo album (excepting Dusty's lead vocals on "I Got The Six" and "Bad Girl") with contributions by pre-production engineer Linden Hudson, who contributed drum machine programming and keyboard sequencing, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliminator_(album) and was alleged to have co-written most of the material, to the point that the band got into a legal conflict that was settled with him being granted the copyright to "Thug"]]. Hudson had also showed Billy some research he'd done previously that most popular rock songs used the tempo of 120 beats per minute, which influenced Billy to write most of the album's songs at that tempo. And when the combination of blues guitar and incongruously synthesized backing tracks sent the album to diamond status, the formula was repeated on ''Afterburner'' and ''Recycler'', and even led to the infamous [[TheNotRemix re-releases of the band's past albums that replaced Frank's drums with drum machines]]. While the band continued using electronic loops and synth elements, Dusty's bass and Frank's actual drums returned to prominence starting with ''Antenna'' and ''Rhythmeen''.

* IndestructibleEdible: From "TV Dinners", which was released as a single from the Eliminator album: "Twenty-year old turkey in a thirty-year old tin." You have to think about it for a moment.

* ManOfAThousandVoices: Billy Gibbons has a five octave vocal range. This puts him up there with the likes of Music/DevinTownsend and [[Music/DirEnGrey Kyo]]. Listen to a taste of it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wYAcp39SvI here]].

* UpdatedRerelease: The CD versions of their 70s albums feature 80s drum machines added instead of the original drumming, marketed as the ''ZZ Top Six Pack''.

* BigApplesauce: From "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide":
-->"With my New York brim and my gold tooth displayed"
** Although it should be noted that "New York brim" refers to a Stetson, the most famous cowboy hat, which is only associated with NY because of the company's location.

** When ''Eliminator'' broke a streak of five albums with Spanish titles in a row [[note]]Six if you count ''Rio Grande Mud'' for referencing a river that happens to have a Spanish name[[/note]] and they were asked why, they would jokingly say that it was actually "[[ElSpanishO El Iminator]]". And they went from there to ''XXX'' without a Spanish album title.

* TrueCompanions: The fact the band has had the exact same lineup for over fifty years shows how close these guys are. The only other rock band that even comes ''close'' to them in terms of lineup longevity is Music/{{Rush}} who had the same lineup for 41 years.

** They also appear in the first ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'' game, but were removed in later revisions of the remake.

* SpectacularSpinning: Billy and Dusty spin their guitars as a SignatureMove in their videos, and even Frank got in on the act with his marching drum in the band's ''Back To The Future III'' cameo.

* CoolOldGuy: Certainly, as they're still going strong in their 70s after 50 years together as they're still filling up stadiums putting on great live shows, while Billy on an individual is considered one of the definitive examples of this trope in music.

** These versions were later sold as separate albums, and inexplicably remained the only versions available until the reissues of ''Tres Hombres'' and ''Fandango'' in 2006. The other albums all followed as HDTracks downloads, and then finally made their appearance on CD in 2013, as part of the box set The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1990.

* CoverVersion: Rare, but it's there - "Jailhouse Rock", "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear", and "Viva Las Vegas" by Music/ElvisPresley, "Dust My Broom" by Music/RobertJohnson, "I Thank You" by Music/IsaacHayes, "Tramp" by Lowell Fulson ([[CoveredUp popularised by]] Music/OtisRedding and Carla Thomas), "As Time Goes By" from the movie ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' (hidden track on ''Mescalero''). Their latest album's "I Gotsta Get Paid" is a blues-rock cover of DJ DMD's "25 Lighters".

** ThePeteBest: There were two previous line-ups: Gibbons, Lanier Greig, and Dan Mitchell, and later Gibbons, Bill Ethridge, and Mitchell. The two previous line-ups ''put together'' lasted less than a year.
*** Billy Gibbons has said that the now standard line-up of ZZ Top kept the name out of convenience, the band that recorded Salt Lick and the band from First Album to the present day are for all intents and purposes different bands. Salt Lick and Millers Farm are closer in style to Gibbons' garage rock days in Moving Sidewalks rather than the blues and hard rock of ZZ Top.

* IntercourseWithYou: "La Grange", "Mexican Blackbird", "Tube Snake Boogie", "Pearl Necklace", "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "I Got the Six", "If I Could Only Flag Her Down", "Bad Girl", "Sleeping Bag", "Planet of Women", "Love Thing", "Penthouse Eyes", "My Head's in Mississippi", "Girl in a T-Shirt", "Bang Bang", "Buck Nekkid"... you know what, we should stop before we end up accidentally listing all of their songs.

* MeaningfulName: The titles of Afterburner and Recycler imply that they are trying to copy Eliminator but less successfully, which many agree with. The band either self-deprecatingly or intentionally set themselves up for reviews that would bring up the irony of the album titles.

* TheEighties: It is utterly impossible to watch the video of "Rough Boy" without instantly identifying the decade in which it was made.

** The riff in the solo breakdown of "I Got The Six" is very reminiscent of the coda of "Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings".

! ''''Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp troped man''''':

!!! "Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp troped man":

* BadassMoustache: Beard makes up for his lack of a Gandalf Beard with one of these.

* DemotedToExtra: This happened to Dusty and Frank on ''Eliminator'': despite them being credited on the album sleeve, Dusty's bass being replaced by keyboards[[note]]"Thug" and its keyboard slap bass that sounds like it escaped from the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' theme being the more obvious one[[/note]] and Frank by drum machines. For all intents and purposes, ''Eliminator'' is a Billy solo album (excepting Dusty's lead vocals on "I Got The Six" and "Bad Girl") with contributions by pre-production engineer Linden Hudson, who contributed drum machine programming and keyboard sequencing, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliminator_(album) and was alleged to have co-written most of the material, to the point that the band got into a legal conflict that was settled with him being granted the copyright to "Thug"]]. Hudson had also showed Billy some research he'd done previously that most popular rock songs used the tempo of 120 beats per minute, which influenced Billy to write most of the album's songs at that tempo. And when the combination of blues guitar and incongruously synthesised backing tracks sent the album to diamond status, the formula was repeated on ''Afterburner'' and ''Recycler'', and even led to the infamous [[TheNotRemix rereleases of the band's past albums that replaced Frank's drums with drum machines]]. While the band continued using electronic loops and synth elements, Dusty's bass and Frank's actual drums returned to prominence starting with ''Antenna'' and ''Rhythmeen''.

* [[{{Pun}} Incredibly Lame Pun]]: In response to some fans noticing that ''Eliminator'' was the first album since ''ZZ Top's First Album'' to not have Spanish in its title, Billy joked that it could be read as ''El Iminator'' instead.

* LoudnessWar: Mescalero is an infamous example, with static and distortion very audible due to the amount of clipping and overuse of treble.

** These versions were later sold as separate albums, and inexplicably remained the only versions available until the reissues of Tres Hombres and Fandango in 2006. The other albums all followed as HDTracks downloads, and then finally made their appearance on CD in 2013, as part of the box set The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1990.

* '''Frank Beard''' - drums, percussion (1969-Present)

* '''''Billy Gibbons''''' - lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano (1969-Present)

* '''Dusty Hill''' - bass, lead vocals, keyboard (1969-Present)

* 1983 - ''Eliminator''

* AsHimself: Billy Gibbons has a recurring role as himself on ''Series/{{Bones}}''. He's Angela's father, and Hodgins' worst nightmare.

* IncrediblyLamePun: In response to some fans noticing that ''Eliminator'' was the first album since ''ZZ Top's First Album'' to not have Spanish in its title, Billy joked that it could be read as ''El Iminator'' instead.

* TheEighties: It is utterly impossible to watch the video of "Rough Boy" without instantly identifying the decade in which it was made.
** Same can be said for the videos for "TV Dinners", "Sharp Dressed Man", and "Velcro Fly".

* CoverVersion: Rare, but it's there - "Jailhouse Rock", "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear", and "Viva Las Vegas" by Music/ElvisPresley, "Dust My Broom" by Music/RobertJohnson, "I Thank You" by Isaac Hayes, "Tramp" by Lowell Fulson ([[CoveredUp popularised by]] Music/OtisRedding and Carla Thomas), "As Time Goes By" from the movie ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' (hidden track on ''Mescalero''). Their latest album's "I Gotsta Get Paid" is a blues-rock cover of DJ DMD's "25 Lighters".

* LongRunnerLineUp: In rock, ''the'' longest. 40+ years, over a dozen albums, dozens of songs--one line-up.

* AutoTune: Some {{egregious}} use of it on ''Mescalero'', especially on "What Would You Do", "Qué Lastima" and "As Time Goes By".

* FantasticAesop: {{Fanservice}} aside, the message of the "Legs" video seems to be, "Be nice to people or ZZ Top and three hot women will magically show up and rescue those people you mistreated and make you pay for the bad things you did to them."

** They appear in the series finale of ''DuckDynasty'' to perform at Si's retirement party.

->''Every girl's crazy bout a sharp-dressed man.''