ZZ Top's drummer, Frank Beard, was born on this day in 1949 in
Frankston, Texas. He began drumming in 1964 and formed ZZ Top, the
wildly popular blues-rock trio, in 1970.
The three men came together when ace guitarist Billy Gibbons, who had
had
regional hits with his band Moving Sidewalks, teamed up with Beard and
bassist Dusty Hill, who were playing together in a band called the American
Blues. ZZ Top signed with London Records and released First Album in
1970. The album sold only in Texas, but the band made a notable dent in the
Billboard 200 albums chart with the similarly bluesy and slyly humorous
follow-up, Rio Grande Mud (1972). With this album, the band, which had
opened for such acts as Janis Joplin and Mott the Hoople, graduated to
warming up for the Rolling Stones.
ZZ Top hit the big time with 1973's Tres Hombres. It peaked at #8,
went gold and spawned the minor hit "La Grange," a song derived from John
Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen"; "La Grange" became one of Top's signature
tunes. In 1975, the band had a top-10 smash and its first U.K. chart entry with
the half-live, half-studio Fandango!. "Tush," a track from the album, was
a top-20 U.S. hit and became a fixture in the band's live shows. In 1976, ZZ Top
made their first appearances in Europe, Australia and Japan as part of
their Worldwide Texas Tour, which included 100 dates in the U.S.
After a few more albums on London, including a greatest-hits collection, ZZ Top
took a hiatus and then
resurfaced on Warner Bros. in 1979 with Deguello.
It took a few albums for the band to hit its stride on its new
label. The trio added synthesizers to its sound for 1983's
Eliminator, which was timed perfectly to capitalize on the
year-old MTV. Sporting their trademark long beards and golf hats, ZZ
Top made videos for three of the album's tracks that, while not very
politically correct, featured the randy band with an assortment of
beautiful ladies in amusing situations. The videos made hits of all the
songs ("Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs"), sent
the album into the multi-platinum zone (it eventually became one of the
best-selling albums of the decade), won the band a few MTV Music Video
Awards and made them superstars. ZZ Top's tour behind the album also was
a major success. Afterburner (1985), including the top-10 hit "Sleeping
Bag," repeated the same formula, and concert-industry trade magazine
Pollstar named ZZ Top the #1 concert draw of 1986.
Though the hit singles became less frequent, ZZ Top had another top-10 album
with 1990's Recycler. But the title said it all: The formula was starting to
wear thin. After a switch to RCA Records, the band enjoyed another platinum
record, 1994's Antenna, and released an album of blues treatments that
same year entitled One Foot In The Blues. ZZ Top's most recent album is
1996's Rhythmeen.
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