Legs (song)

"Legs"
"Legs"
Single by ZZ Top
from the album Eliminator
B-side	"A Fool for Your Stockings"
Released	1984
Studio	Frank Beard's home studio, Quail Valley; Ardent Studios, Memphis; Terry Manning's home studio, Memphis;
Genre	Blues rock; electronic rock; synth-pop;
Length	4:35 (original album version); 3:33 (single mix); 7:48 (dance mix); 4:31 (Greatest Hits/video version);
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Billy Gibbons; Dusty Hill; Frank Beard;
Producer(s)	Bill Ham
ZZ Top singles chronology

"Legs" is a song by the band ZZ Top from their 1983 album Eliminator. The song was released as the fourth single in May 1984 more than a year after the album came out. It reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States (their highest-charting single on the pop charts), and the dance mix version of the song peaked at number 13 on the dance charts.^[4]

A video was made for "Legs", depicting a timid young female store clerk who is given confidence by a trio of sexy women, with the band mysteriously appearing and disappearing. "Legs" was the third installment of a trilogy of similarly themed videos shot by Tim Newman for Eliminator, and it won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Group.^[5] The video was placed into heavy rotation on MTV, which helped to lift the single high on the charts.

Like other songs on Eliminator, the musical style of "Legs" shows the band's new interest in electronic music elements, driven by singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons who was pushing to incorporate new wave and synth-pop styles. Pre-production engineer Linden Hudson established the song's pulsing synthesizer line during rehearsals. "Legs" contains electric guitar and vocals from Gibbons, but the bass guitar of Dusty Hill and drums of Frank Beard were replaced in the final mix by engineer Terry Manning who played keyboard bass and drum machine to achieve the style sought by Gibbons.

^ Gundersen, Edna (December 21, 2013). "Catalog box sets sum up Beatles, Dylan, Eagles, Ramones". USA Today. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
^ Evans, Richard (August 6, 2024). "1983.3". Listening to the Music the Machines Make: Inventing Electronic Pop 1978-1983. Omnibus Press. p. 446. ISBN 978-1-915841-45-2.
^ Diehl, Matt (February 2, 1996). "ZZ Top: Rhythmeen". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 25, 2009.
^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 287.
^ Black, Elizabeth (August 25, 2016). "A Look Back at The First Ever MTV VMAs: Bette Midler & Dan Aykroyd Co-Hosted, Herbie Hancock Swept the Awards". VH1. Archived from the original on August 31, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2021.

[1] Gundersen, Edna (December 21, 2013). "Catalog box sets sum up Beatles, Dylan, Eagles, Ramones". USA Today. Retrieved May 7, 2015.

[Evans_2024-2] Evans, Richard (August 6, 2024). "1983.3". Listening to the Music the Machines Make: Inventing Electronic Pop 1978-1983. Omnibus Press. p. 446. ISBN 978-1-915841-45-2.

[3] Diehl, Matt (February 2, 1996). "ZZ Top: Rhythmeen". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 25, 2009.

[4] Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 287.

[5] Black, Elizabeth (August 25, 2016). "A Look Back at The First Ever MTV VMAs: Bette Midler & Dan Aykroyd Co-Hosted, Herbie Hancock Swept the Awards". VH1. Archived from the original on August 31, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2021.

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