ZZ Top “Eliminator” released 40 years ago today, March 23rd, 1983. Definitely one of the soundtracks to my middle school, MTV-obsessed years – and I still love it! It’s ZZ Top’s eighth studio LP and their biggest selling album; it went to #9 in the US and to #3 in the UK; its tracks continue to be played to this day on classic rock stations everywhere and it’s considered one of the best records of all-time. Eliminator found the blues-based rock band incorporating the 80’s synth sound into their recordings and while some of their fans were horrified, the mix of blues and modern keyboards clearly worked. That, and their clever story-lined videos that were played nonstop on MTV throughout ’83 and ’84. One reviewer, writing 20 years after its release stated “ZZ Top had found the potent combination that would bring them into the eighties and their era of greatest commercial triumph: raunchy guitar sounds coupled with the pounding drive and unrelenting sex machine rhythmic precision of electronic dance music and synth pop” and converted teens – and, for the first time, girls (👋) – into listeners (and buyers).

My top tracks are of course the hits that are still embedded into my 80’s DNA. “Gimme All Your Lovin,” the first single, went to #37 in the US and to #10 in the UK. It’s the first time we see Eliminator car and its trio of Playboy model/actresses in the video which the MTV generation would get to see in the following singles videos. The second single from Eliminator is another favorite, “Sharp Dressed Man.” It hit #56 in the US (I feel like it was more popular than that) and #22 in the UK. Its video had the same director as “Gimme All Your Lovin,” Tim Newman, and continues the storyline with the three women giving the Eliminator car keys to a remade valet, who indeed becomes sharply dressed. “Legs” completed the trilogy and is my hands-down favorite of the three tracks. It also went the highest on the charts, going to #8 in the US (and to #16 in the UK). In the video the hot ladies turn their sights onto giving a mousy young woman a makeover. I 100% wanted to wear little white socks with lace and heels after seeing that video (but at 12 years old I think the line was drawn at high heels but I’m pretty sure I got the lacy ankle socks). The “Legs” video won the MTV award for Best Group video in 1984. There was another single released, “TV Dinners,” but I don’t remember that one from my childhood. It didn’t hit the main charts in the US but made it to #38 on the Top Tracks chart and to #67 in the UK. Non-single songs that are also great: the hard-rocking “I Got the Six” and “Dirty Dog.”