Greatest Hits is a greatest hits album by the American rock band ZZ Top, released in 1992.
Overview Most of the songs come from albums released during 1979–1990, from Degüello through Recycler. Exceptions include remixes of "Tush" and "La Grange", and the non-album tracks "Viva Las Vegas" and "Gun Love". "Viva Las Vegas" was previously released as a single.
The vinyl version of the album omitted four tracks included on the CD version ("Cheap Sunglasses", "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide", "Pearl Necklace", and "Planet of Women") and some tracks on the vinyl version are also edited from the original running length.
A companion video album titled Greatest Hits: The Video Collection was also released.
Critical reception In a contemporary review, Andy Gill of The Independent credited manager/producer Bill Ham's use of computer technology on ZZ Top's mid-1980s material for transforming "what was effectively a straight-ahead boogie band into the apotheosis of disco metal", adding that Greatest Hits demonstrates this transformation because it naturally concentrates largely on "the computerized period" of the band's career. He felt the compilation was largely "an exercise in swagger on cruise control", and mentioned the minority of straight boogie tracks, including 1981's "Tube Snake Boogie", described as "the earliest indication of the powerglide computer-boogie style that would come to dominate."
In the NME, Andy Fyfe felt that ZZ Top were especially deserving of a greatest hits compilation and similarly noted its emphasis on the band's "deep space blues craziness" of Eliminator onwards, believing that the pre-Eliminator material was better served by an earlier greatest hits record, The Best of ZZ Top (1977). Fyfe concluded that, although some argue that "a sense of humour and blistering cyborg blues is no defence of a sexist band", this assessment misses the point. Andrew Collins of Select wrote that Greatest Hits would remind "doubting Thomases" that, beneath ZZ Top's visual gimmicks, they were "one of the most original and consistently entertaining rock bands of the last two decades", recommending that listeners enjoy it with a six-pack of beer.
In Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s (2000), Robert Christgau hailed ZZ Top as "the class of arena blues, and they also write songs", and felt that "nonarean types" would enjoy "Got Me Under Pressure". Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in a retrospective review for AllMusic, commented that Greatest Hits is not "a perfect roundup of ZZ Top's superstar years of the '80s" but still offers "the MTV-era basics", and deemed it a useful complement to the 1970s-focused The Best of ZZ Top. However, Erlewine lamented the inclusion of some new tracks and album cuts. In The Rough Guide to Rock (1999), Neil Nixon recommends it as one of the two best ZZ Top albums, alongside Degüello (1979), as it contains all of their biggest-sellers from the 1980s as well as "a few of the ruggest 70s stage favourites."
Track listing CD
Vinyl
Personnel Billy Gibbons – guitar, lead vocals (1–3, 5–7, 9–18) Dusty Hill – bass guitar, backing and lead vocals (4, 8), keyboard Frank Beard – drums, percussion
Production Producer – Bill Ham Engineer – Joe Hardy, Bob Ludwig, Terry Manning Art Direction – Jeri Heiden Design – Leslie Wintner Photography – Glen Wexler Liner Notes – Bob Merlis, Davin Seay
Charts
Weekly charts Chart (1992) Peakposition
Year-end charts Chart (1992) Position Australian Albums (ARIA) 13 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) 19 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) 35 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) 28 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) 39 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) 15 US Billboard 200 56
Certifications
References