Eliminator (album)

Eliminator (album)

Eliminator is the eighth studio album by American rock band ZZ Top. It was released on March 23, 1983, by Warner Bros. Records. Recorded in Tennessee during 1982, the album was produced by the band's manager Bill Ham and peaked at the top of the charts worldwide. "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Got Me Under Pressure", "Sharp Dressed Man", "TV Dinners", and "Legs" were released as singles. A Diamond award winner, Eliminator is ZZ Top's most successful release with sales of over 10 million copies in the United States.

The band wanted to expand on the synthesizer sound of their 1981 record El Loco. Influenced by pop music, Eliminator′s tracks were recorded with a combination of the synthesizer, drum machine, and sequencer. The album used music videos as successful promotional tools—the videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man", and "Legs" all received regular rotation on MTV. A customized 1930s Ford coupe, depicted on the album cover, could be seen in the videos. Following Eliminator′s release, ZZ Top embarked on a worldwide concert tour.

Eliminator garnered widespread critical acclaim. Praise centered on its songwriting and use of synthesizers. Often considered ZZ Top's most popular release, the record has been featured in several publications' best albums lists. It ranked number 396 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and was listed at number 39 in The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80's. In 2008, Eliminator was remastered and reissued, with the addition of bonus tracks and a DVD containing live performances.

The “Eliminator” album was not without controversy. According to former stage manager David Blayney (15 years with ZZ Top) in his book, "Sharp Dressed Men," sound engineer Linden Hudson co-wrote much of the material on the album as a live-in high-tech music teacher to Beard and Gibbons. And, despite continued denials by the band, it settled a five-year legal battle with Hudson, paying him a sum of money after he proved he held the copyright to the song "Thug" which appeared on "Eliminator". It's a fact that after the five year legal dispute, ZZ Top paid Linden Hudson $600,000 in a settlement for his song "Thug". David Blayney further described, in his book, the role Linden played in the process of planning and preparing "Eliminator". This was well demonstrated in the writing and making of a demo of the song "Under Pressure". Billy and Linden wrote the whole song and created a recorded demo all in one afternoon without either Dusty or Frank even knowing about it. Linden created the bass on a synthesizer, created drums on a drum machine and helped Billy Gibbons write the lyrics; Billy performed the guitars and vocals.

David Sinclair, of the London Times, described in his book "The Story Of ZZ Top" how Linden Hudson drew Billy's attention to the possibility of using a drum machine for the final recording of the Eliminator album.

Deborah Frost, writer for Rolling Stone Magazine, described in her book "ZZ Top - Bad And Worldwide" how Linden Hudson researched popular song tempos, then presented Billy Gibbons with the results of his studies. Linden's data suggested that 120 beats per minute was the most popular tempo in the rock music market at that time. Billy decided to go for it and recorded most of the Eliminator album at that tempo.