ZZ Top: Eliminator

LP Record This masterpiece was the album that finally launched the three Texans onto the international stage in 1983. After a series of more or less successful records from 1971–1981, this (their eighth) album marked a shift from raw, gritty blues to the stadium rock sound that made ZZ Top famous worldwide. The entire record is characterised by synthesiser sounds combined with solid hard rock riffs, although here and there they sound more like pop than true hard rock. Many critics faulted them for this, but this musical reorientation is, of course, strongly linked to the electro phase of the eighties. Their first two US Top 10 singles, "Legs" (number 8) and "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (number 10), showed that they were successful with it.