Album dossier / 1983

Eliminator

ZZ Top · Hard Rock/Blues Rock

ZZ Top's synth-and-sequencer-augmented boogie blues became their best-selling album ever, fusing Texas blues rock with new wave production for an MTV-ready sound. Engineer/producer Terry Manning, working out of Ardent Studios in Memphis after Billy Gibbons chased a danceable tempo he'd heard DJs favor in European clubs, largely rebuilt songs like 'Legs' and 'Sharp Dressed Man' from the ground up with an Oberheim DMX drum machine and synth bass layered under Gibbons's guitar; Manning has said 98% of the album's guitar tone came from a single Legend amp mic'd with one AKG 414 that never moved for the whole record. An uncredited collaborator, Frank Beard's roommate Linden Hudson, helped develop the material's tempo and songwriting in Beard's home studio before ZZ Top relocated to Ardent to re-record everything with Manning, a dispute later settled by lawsuit. Eliminator went on to sell roughly 20 million copies worldwide and its MTV-driven videos (with the recurring 'Eliminator car' and its trio of models) helped define the band's mid-80s visual identity.