REVIEW: ZZ Top – The Best of ZZ Top

 

ZZ Top – The Best of ZZ Top (1977)

(London Records – PS 706)

The Verdict

Released on November 26, 1977, The Best of ZZ Top is much more than a convenient collection of previously released material. Bringing together ten tracks from the band’s first five studio albums, it offers an exceptionally concise portrait of ZZ Top before the MTV era transformed them into international superstars.

This is ZZ Top stripped down to their essential ingredients: Texas blues, hard-rock muscle, boogie grooves, dirty guitar tones and an almost telepathic rhythmic chemistry between Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. There are no synthesizers, no drum machines, no glossy 1980s production tricks and none of the elaborate visual mythology that would later surround the band. What remains is the raw, earthy power of a three-piece that had already developed a sound entirely its own.

And that is precisely why this compilation remains so enjoyable. It documents the band at the point where their blues foundations and hard-rock instincts had fused into something unmistakably ZZ Top.

Album Review

Long before Eliminator made them MTV royalty, ZZ Top were one of America's great working bands: relentlessly touring, deeply rooted in Texas blues and already capable of turning a three-piece arrangement into something considerably bigger than the sum of its parts.

The magic lies in the balance. Billy Gibbons' guitar is filthy without becoming uncontrolled, Dusty Hill provides a bass foundation that is heavier and more melodic than it initially appears, while Frank Beard's drumming supplies the subtle swing that keeps the whole machine moving. Beard in particular deserves more credit than the band's mythology sometimes allows: his playing is economical, but never stiff, and his feel is fundamental to the band's groove.

The Best of ZZ Top captures all of this beautifully.

Side One

The compilation gets straight to the point with “Tush”, a compact, explosive piece of Texas boogie that remains one of the band's signature recordings. At barely over two minutes, it wastes absolutely no time. Dusty Hill's lead vocal, Gibbons' razor-sharp guitar work and Beard's relentless groove make it the perfect opening statement.

The pairing of “Waitin' for the Bus” and “Jesus Just Left Chicago” is arguably the centerpiece of the entire collection. Originally appearing consecutively on Tres Hombres (1973), the two tracks almost function as a single composition: the former establishes a hypnotic, slow-burning groove before giving way to the heavier, blues-soaked swagger of the latter.

That transition is one of those small pieces of sequencing genius that makes a compilation feel like an album rather than a playlist.

“Francine” introduces a lighter, more melodic side of the band without abandoning their blues-rock character, while “Just Got Paid” brings the emphasis firmly back to Gibbons' guitar. The latter is particularly impressive because of the way its riffing combines blues phrasing with the sheer physical weight of hard rock.

Side Two

If Side One establishes the band's groove, Side Two begins with their calling card.

“La Grange” is built around one of the most recognizable guitar shuffles in rock history, but its effectiveness comes from how little the band actually needs to do with it. The riff, the rhythm section and Gibbons' vocal attitude are enough. Inspired by the notorious Chicken Ranch brothel in La Grange, Texas, the song became one of ZZ Top's defining recordings and an enduring piece of Texas rock mythology.

Then comes “Blue Jean Blues”, arguably the compilation's most revealing track. Instead of relying on the band's trademark boogie attack, Gibbons stretches out into a slow, deeply atmospheric blues performance. His guitar playing here is all about touch, sustain and phrasing rather than speed. It is a useful reminder that beneath ZZ Top's humour and swagger was a genuinely accomplished blues guitarist.

“Backdoor Love Affair” restores the band's heavier groove before “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers” kicks the doors wide open again. The latter is especially notable for the shared vocal approach of Gibbons and Hill, reinforcing the sense that ZZ Top's sound was not simply built around one frontman but around the chemistry of the entire trio.

Finally, “Heard It on the X” closes the record in suitably rebellious fashion. The song pays tribute to the powerful Mexican “border blaster” radio stations that could be heard across Texas, stations that played blues, rock 'n' roll and other music that American broadcasters often ignored. The reference is more than a bit of local colour: those stations were part of the musical environment that helped shape the young Gibbons and the broader Texas rock culture.

Production & Sound

Produced by the band's legendary manager Bill Ham, the compilation benefits from the sonic character of the original early-1970s recordings rather than attempting to modernize them. The material originated from sessions associated with Robin Hood Studios in Tyler, Texas, and Ardent Studios in Memphis, two important locations in the development of ZZ Top's early sound.

What makes these recordings work so well is their physicality. The guitars have weight without excessive studio polish, the bass is present without swallowing the guitar, and Beard's drums retain a natural sense of movement.

There is a genuine three people in a room quality to much of this material. That doesn't mean the production is primitive—it is actually remarkably controlled—but the performances retain enough grit and space to breathe.

The Cover: Ten Legendary Texas Tales

The sleeve is another reason this particular compilation has become so memorable among collectors. The album is presented under the subtitle “10 Legendary Texas Tales,” with artwork credited to illustrator Phil Garner and design by John Kosh, whose résumé includes some of the most recognizable album artwork of the rock era.

The pulp-magazine aesthetic fits ZZ Top perfectly: humorous, exaggerated, slightly sleazy and unmistakably Texan. It feels less like a conventional greatest-hits package and more like a visual extension of the band's emerging mythology.

An Interesting Omission

One of the more curious aspects of the compilation is what it leaves out.

Although Tejas had been released in 1976, none of its material appears here. Instead, the album concentrates entirely on recordings from 1971 through 1975—the band's first five studio albums.

In retrospect, this gives the compilation an unexpected advantage. Rather than trying to represent every phase of ZZ Top's career up to 1977, it unintentionally creates a remarkably coherent portrait of their formative period.

Interestingly, contemporary trade coverage acknowledged that not all of the band's recent singles had made the cut, but still regarded the selection as difficult to fault.

And that is probably the best way to approach The Best of ZZ Top: not as an absolutely comprehensive greatest-hits collection, but as a carefully concentrated introduction to the band's first and arguably rawest chapter.

Commercial Legacy

The album initially reached No. 94 on the Billboard 200, and later returned to the chart in 1984 at No. 182. In the United States, it was eventually certified double Platinum, reflecting the enormous longevity of ZZ Top's catalogue.

Its staying power is hardly surprising. By the time Eliminator arrived in 1983, ZZ Top had already spent more than a decade developing the musical language that would make their 1980s transformation so successful. Listening back to this compilation makes that evolution much easier to understand.

The famous beards, hot rods, sunglasses and MTV videos did not create ZZ Top. They merely placed an already fully developed musical identity inside a new visual context.

Why This Compilation Still Matters

The Best of ZZ Top remains one of the most effective ways to experience the band's pre-MTV identity in a single sitting. It contains the essential ingredients: “Tush,” “Waitin' for the Bus,” “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” “Just Got Paid,” “La Grange,” “Blue Jean Blues” and “Heard It on the X”—and, importantly, presents them without the distractions that would later accompany the ZZ Top phenomenon.

For anyone who discovered the band through Eliminator, Afterburner or their MTV videos, this record is almost a time machine. It takes you back to when ZZ Top were simply three Texans making extraordinarily infectious, dirty, blues-drenched hard rock.

And there is something refreshing about hearing them in this form.

No gimmicks. No drum machines. No sequencers. No neon.

Just Gibbons, Hill and Beard, locked into a groove and sounding like nobody else.

That is the real value of The Best of ZZ Top: it doesn't merely collect some of the band's best early songs—it preserves the moment when the legend was still being built.

Nick Parastatidis