Eliminator is the eighth studio album by American rock band ZZ Top. It was released on March 23, 1983, by Warner Bros. Records. Recorded in Tennessee during 1982, the album was produced by the band's manager Bill Ham and peaked at the top of the charts worldwide. "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Got Me Under Pressure", "Sharp Dressed Man", "TV Dinners", and "Legs" were released as singles. A Diamond award winner, Eliminator is ZZ Top's most successful release with sales of over 10 million copies in the United States.
The band wanted to expand on the synthesizer sound of their 1981 record El Loco. Influenced by pop music, Eliminator′s tracks were recorded with a combination of the synthesizer, drum machine, and sequencer. The album used music videos as successful promotional tools—the videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man", and "Legs" all received regular rotation on MTV. A customized 1930s Ford coupe, depicted on the album cover, could be seen in the videos. Following Eliminator′s release, ZZ Top embarked on a worldwide concert tour.
Eliminator garnered widespread critical acclaim. Praise centered on its songwriting and use of synthesizers. Often considered ZZ Top's most popular release, the record has been featured in several publications' best albums lists. It ranked number 396 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and was listed at number 39 in The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80's. In 2008, Eliminator was remastered and reissued, with the addition of bonus tracks and a DVD containing live performances.
The “Eliminator” album was not without controversy. According to former stage manager David Blayney (15 years with ZZ Top) in his book, "Sharp Dressed Men," sound engineer Linden Hudson co-wrote much of the material on the album as a live-in high-tech music teacher to Beard and Gibbons. And, despite continued denials by the band, it settled a five-year legal battle with Hudson, paying him a sum of money after he proved he held the copyright to the song "Thug" which appeared on "Eliminator". It's a fact that after the five year legal dispute, ZZ Top paid Linden Hudson $600,000 in a settlement for his song "Thug". David Blayney further described, in his book, the role Linden played in the process of planning and preparing "Eliminator". This was well demonstrated in the writing and making of a demo of the song "Under Pressure". Billy and Linden wrote the whole song and created a recorded demo all in one afternoon without either Dusty or Frank even knowing about it. Linden created the bass on a synthesizer, created drums on a drum machine and helped Billy Gibbons write the lyrics; Billy performed the guitars and vocals.
David Sinclair, of the London Times, described in his book "The Story Of ZZ Top" how Linden Hudson drew Billy's attention to the possibility of using a drum machine for the final recording of the Eliminator album.
Deborah Frost, writer for Rolling Stone Magazine, described in her book "ZZ Top - Bad And Worldwide" how Linden Hudson researched popular song tempos, then presented Billy Gibbons with the results of his studies. Linden's data suggested that 120 beats per minute was the most popular tempo in the rock music market at that time. Billy decided to go for it and recorded most of the Eliminator album at that tempo.Eliminator is the eighth studio album by American rock band ZZ Top. It was released on March 23, 1983, by Warner Bros. Records. Recorded in Tennessee during 1982, the album was produced by the band's manager Bill Ham and peaked at the top of the charts worldwide. "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Got Me Under Pressure", "Sharp Dressed Man", "TV Dinners", and "Legs" were released as singles. A Diamond award winner, Eliminator is ZZ Top's most successful release with sales of over 10 million copies in the United States.
The band wanted to expand on the synthesizer sound of their 1981 record El Loco. Influenced by pop music, Eliminator′s tracks were recorded with a combination of the synthesizer, drum machine, and sequencer. The album used music videos as successful promotional tools—the videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man", and "Legs" all received regular rotation on MTV. A customized 1930s Ford coupe, depicted on the album cover, could be seen in the videos. Following Eliminator′s release, ZZ Top embarked on a worldwide concert tour.
Eliminator garnered widespread critical acclaim. Praise centered on its songwriting and use of synthesizers. Often considered ZZ Top's most popular release, the record has been featured in several publications' best albums lists. It ranked number 396 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and was listed at number 39 in The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80's. In 2008, Eliminator was remastered and reissued, with the addition of bonus tracks and a DVD containing live performances.
The “Eliminator” album was not without controversy. According to former stage manager David Blayney (15 years with ZZ Top) in his book, "Sharp Dressed Men," sound engineer Linden Hudson co-wrote much of the material on the album as a live-in high-tech music teacher to Beard and Gibbons. And, despite continued denials by the band, it settled a five-year legal battle with Hudson, paying him a sum of money after he proved he held the copyright to the song "Thug" which appeared on "Eliminator". It's a fact that after the five year legal dispute, ZZ Top paid Linden Hudson $600,000 in a settlement for his song "Thug". David Blayney further described, in his book, the role Linden played in the process of planning and preparing "Eliminator". This was well demonstrated in the writing and making of a demo of the song "Under Pressure". Billy and Linden wrote the whole song and created a recorded demo all in one afternoon without either Dusty or Frank even knowing about it. Linden created the bass on a synthesizer, created drums on a drum machine and helped Billy Gibbons write the lyrics; Billy performed the guitars and vocals.
David Sinclair, of the London Times, described in his book "The Story Of ZZ Top" how Linden Hudson drew Billy's attention to the possibility of using a drum machine for the final recording of the Eliminator album.
Deborah Frost, writer for Rolling Stone Magazine, described in her book "ZZ Top - Bad And Worldwide" how Linden Hudson researched popular song tempos, then presented Billy Gibbons with the results of his studies. Linden's data suggested that 120 beats per minute was the most popular tempo in the rock music market at that time. Billy decided to go for it and recorded most of the Eliminator album at that tempo.false2023-01-16 09:44:59Eliminator8.819831983-03-231983-03-2345Arena RockBlues RockClassic RockHard RockPop RockRockSouthern RockBoogie RockTexas Blues1136332125847ac85b905-13c2-48f6-8951-d45612205fc2a81259a0-a2f5-464b-866e-71220f2739f1c58b50f0-d7a4-322c-b281-d86ebe3b8acf/media/data/media5/Music/ZZ Top/08 - 1983 - Eliminator (1986 US 9 23774-2)/folder.jpgZZ TopAlbumArtistZZ TopArtistZZ TopZZ TopZZ Top is an American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. For 51 years, it consisted of vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound based on Gibbons' blues style and Hill and Beard's rhythm section. They are known for their live performances, sly and humorous lyrics, and the matching appearances of Gibbons and Hill, who wore sunglasses, hats and long beards.
ZZ Top formed after Gibbons' previous band, Moving Sidewalks, disbanded in 1969. Within a year, they signed with London Records and released ZZ Top's First Album in 1971. Subsequent releases, such as Tres Hombres (1973) and Fandango! (1975), and the singles "La Grange" and "Tush", gained extensive radio airplay. By the mid-1970s, ZZ Top had become renowned in North America for their live act, including the Worldwide Texas Tour (1976–1977), which was a critical and commercial success.
After a hiatus, ZZ Top returned in 1979 with a new musical direction and image, with Gibbons and Hill wearing sunglasses and matching chest-length beards. With the album El Loco (1981), they began to experiment with synthesizers and drum machines. They established a more mainstream sound and rose to international stardom with Eliminator (1983) and Afterburner (1985), which integrated influences from new wave, punk, and dance-rock. The popularity of these albums' music videos, including those for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man", and "Legs", gave them mass exposure on television channel MTV and made them prominent artists in 1980s pop culture. The Afterburner tour set records for the highest-attended and highest-grossing concert tour of 1986.
After gaining additional acclaim with the release of their tenth album, Recycler (1990), and its accompanying tour, the group's experimentation continued with mixed success on the albums Antenna (1994), Rhythmeen (1996), XXX (1999), and Mescalero (2003). They most recently released La Futura (2012) and Goin' 50 (2019), a compilation album commemorating the band's 50th anniversary. By the time of Hill's death in 2021, ZZ Top had become the longest-running band with an unchanged lineup in the history of popular music. Per Hill's wishes, he was replaced by their longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, on bass.
ZZ Top has released 15 studio albums and sold an estimated 50 million records worldwide. They have won three MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2004, the members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Gibbons the 32nd-greatest guitarist of all time. The band members have supported campaigns and charities including Childline, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and a fundraiser for the Delta Blues Museum.