Elvis Presley ZZ Top article page
of the Elvis Presley biography story

This Elvis Presley biography ZZ Top page is dedicated to providing quality Elvis Presley biography information, pictures and articles for your entertainment. The contents of this Elvis Presley site is written by a fan for his fans about ZZ Top.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

ZZ Top is an American rock band, most prominent in the 1970s and 1980s, from Houston, Texas. The band members are Billy Gibbons (vocals and guitar, of Moving Sidewalks), Dusty Hill (bass, 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, innuendo-laced lyrics (many of which are about places and events in their home state of Texas), 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, ironically, 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. The origin of the name of the band is apparently not offically known. Some theories include: the two brands of rolling-paper, Zig-Zag and Top; a tribute to blues legend Z. Z. Hill; Z-shaped barn-door braces Gibbons once saw at a farm; and/or Billy Gibbons seeing the two words running together on a dilapidated bill board. The first ideas were "ZZ Gibbons" and "ZZ Hill", but were later rejected in favor of "ZZ Top".

The band first gained wide attention with their Tres Hombres album, which contained the classic song "La Grange", referencing the bordello that is the subject of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. They reached new heights of popularity with the 1983 album Eliminator, boosted to prominence by music videos for the tracks "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man" each of which featured a small bright red vintage coupe called The Eliminator and a mysterious trio of beautiful women who travel around helping various people in the videos. The album also featured a distinctive synthesizer-laced sound, a rarity in the blues genre which added a modern edge to the music, and also helped the album to be as successful as it is.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted ZZ Top in on March 15, 2004. Billy Gibbons appears on Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell's solo album Two Sides Of If. More recently, Billy makes an appearance on the Queens of the Stone Age song "Burn the Witch". The band is also working on an album of new material, due out sometime in 2006.

Discography

 ZZ Top's First Album (1970)

 Rio Grande Mud (1972)

 Tres Hombres (1973)

 Fandango! (1975)

 Tejas (1976)

 The Best of ZZ Top (1977)

 Degьello (1979)

 El Loco (1981)

 Eliminator (1983)

 Afterburner (1985)

 Recycler (1990)

 ZZ Top's Greatest Hits (1992)

 Antenna (1994)

 One Foot in the Blues (1994)

 Rhythmeen (1996)

 XXX (1999)

 Mescalero (2003)

 Chrome, Smoke & BBQ (2003)

 Rancho Texicano (2004)

Singles

 "Cheap Sunglasses"

 "La Grange"

 "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide"

 "Tush"

 "Velcro Fly"

 also, the songs listed under "Music Videos" below

Music Videos

(not on the "Greatest Hits" VHS/DVD)

 "Pincushion"

 "Breakaway"

 "World of Swirl"

DVDs

 "ZZ Top's Greatest's Hits" (2004)

 "Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival" (Nov. 9, 2004) — ZZ Top plays on this DVD.

Books

 "ZZ Top: Bad and Worldwide" (1985)

 "ZZ Top" by Mitchell Craven (July 1, 1985)

 "ZZ Top" by Philip Kamin (March 3, 1986)

 "ZZ Top" by Robert Draper (July 1, 1989)

 "Elimination: The ZZ Top Story" (December 1, 1991)

 "Sharp-Dressed Men: Zz Top Behind the Scenes from Blues to Boogie to Beards" (May 1, 1994)

 "ZZ Top: Elimination" (June 1, 1998)

 "ZZ Top Greatest Hits" (July 1, 1999)

 "The New Best of Zz Top for Guitar (Easy Tab Deluxe)" (July 1, 1999)

 "ZZ Top / XXX (Authentic Guitar-Tab)" (March 1, 2000)

 "ZZ Top — Guitar Anthology" (February 1, 2003)

 "Essential ZZ Top" (April 2003)

 "The Very Best of ZZ Top" (April 1, 2003)

 "The Best of Zz Top: A Step-By-Step Breakdown of the Guitar Styles and Techniques of Billy Gibbons" (September 1, 2003)

 "Billy F. Gibbons: Rock+Roll Gearhead" (October 15, 2005).

NOTE: Publishing dates were acquired from Amazon.com.

Download the free autobiography book version of “Elvis Presley Forever” with his life story in full
This autobiography page is dedicated to providing quality Elvis Presley biography information, pictures and articles for your entertainment. The contents of this Elvis Presley biography site is written by a fan for his fans.

What Elvis Presley biography information are you looking for?
Try a local search of our site for your answers