Top 40

This isn't a perfect roundup of ZZ Top's superstar years of the '80s, but it comes pretty close. It dips back into the '70s for "Pearl Necklace" and "La Grange," with a couple of selections from the post-peak '90s, but this does offer the MTV-era basics: "Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp Dressed Man," "Rough Boy," "Tush," "My Head's in Mississippi," "Doubleback," "Cheap Sunglasses," "Sleeping Bag." What slows this record down are some new cuts and album tracks that don't deserve to be here, along with a remix, not the original version, of "Legs." Still, that may just be quibbling for some listeners, since the basics are all here, making this a good complement to the '70s-focused The Best of ZZ Top.

The very title of Goin' 50 suggests ZZ Top are considering their 50th anniversary as an event to be celebrated with a sense of humor. That's appropriate. Good spirits and lascivious jokes always have been integral to the trio's appeal, and they can be heard in abundance on this triple-CD/five-LP set that tells their story from beginning to end (there is also a single-disc edition that rounds up the highlights). The set breaks down into three easy acts: the band's greasy early years, spanning from "La Grange" to "Pearl Necklace," are on the first disc; the second installment covers their MTV glory days; the third CD traces the aftermath of Afterburner, beginning with "Viva Las Vegas" and ending with the 21st century barnburner "I Gotsta Get Paid" (plus recent live versions of "Waitin' for the Bus" and "Jesus Just Left Chicago," which brings this full circle to the beginning).

ZZ Top's long-awaited return to the blues finally arrived in 1996, well over a decade after they abandoned their simple three-chord boogie for a synth and drum machine-driven three-chord boogie. Like Antenna before it, Rhythmeen is stripped of all the synthesizers that had characterized the group's albums since Eliminator but the key difference between the two albums is how Rhythmeen goes for the gut, not the gloss. It's a record that is steeped in the blues and garage rock, one that pounds out its riffs with sweat and feeling. Though ZZ Top sounds reinvigorated, playing with a salacious abandon they haven't displayed since the '70s, they simply haven't come up with enough interesting songs and riffs to make it a true return to form. For dedicated fans, it's a welcome return to their classic "La Grange" sound, but anyone with a just a passing interest in the band will wonder where the hooks went.

Tom Jones became one of the most popular vocalists to emerge from the British Invasion. Since the mid-'60s, Jones has sung nearly every form of popular music pop, rock, show tunes, country, dance, and techno, he's sung it all. His actual style a full-throated, robust baritone that had little regard for nuance and subtlety never changed, he just sang over different backing tracks.

ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The band consists of guitarist and lead vocalist Billy Gibbons, bassist and co-lead vocalist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard. The band and its members went through several reconfigurations throughout 1969, achieving their current form when Hill replaced bassist Billy Etheridge in February 1970, shortly before the band was signed to London Records…

A CD accompaniment to the Eagle Rock live DVD release of ZZ Top's November 1, 2007 set at the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, TX, Live from Texas is one for the fans - a latter-day live record that's by no means embarrassing but not very captivating, either. The set list is hits-heavy, containing every one of the MTV hits from Eliminator and all the classic rock radio staples, all taken just a little bit slower than they were on record. That combined with the crystal clear production makes the band seem just a little bit sluggish at times, but they can still churn out a boogie - "Sharp Dressed Man" in particular cooks - and Billy Gibbons' guitar still snarls as much as his voice growls, which is enough to make this worth a listen for longtime fans.

This box set contains five of ZZ Top's very best albums – Rio Grande Mud, Tres Hombres, Fandango, Deguello, and Eliminator – each presented as a mini-LP in a cardboard sleeve within this small slipcase box…

Interestingly, while always priding themselves on being a kick-ass live band, ZZ Top never got around to issuing a full-length live album during their 1970s/1980s peak. But as they say, it's better late than never, and 2011 finally saw the arrival of an archival live ZZ Top recording, Live in Germany 1980. Featuring half of the audio portion of their 2009 Double Down Live DVD, Live in Germany 1980 does a fantastic job of displaying all of the group's pre-Eliminator classics in a concert setting…