ZZ Top - Legs {HD}

"Legs" is a song performed by the band ZZ Top from their 1983 album Eliminator. The song was released as a single in 1984 and reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The dance mix version of the song peaked at number thirteen on the dance charts. Although all three members of ZZ Top are credited with playing on the track, only Gibbons was actually present; engineer Terry Manning was responsible for all the musical parts save the lead guitar. However, David Blayney (ZZ Top stage manager for 15 years) explains in his book. Sharp Dressed Men that the pumping synthesizer effect in "Legs" was introduced in pre-production by Linden Hudson. During the final tracking sessions, Terry Manning (final Eliminator tracking engineer) called Linden Hudson and asked how he did the synth effects for "Legs", although Terry could have easily pulled it off if he needed to. The single remix of “Legs" is much more synthesizer-driven than the album version. Although you can hear a synthesizer throughout the album version, it is toned down. There is also a three-note guitar riff heard throughout most of the album version of "Legs", and it is a minute longer than the single version.In a 1985 interview with Spin magazine, ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons explained the inspiration for this song: "I was driving in Los Angeles, and there was this unusual downpour. And there was a real pretty girl on the side of the road. I passed her, and then I thought, 'Well, I'd better pull over' or at least turn around and offer her a ride, and by the time I got back she was gone. Her legs were the first thing I noticed. Then I noticed that she had a Brooke Shields hairdo that was in danger of falling. She was not going to get wet. She had legs and she knew how to use them."Feminist groups criticized this song for objectifying women, although ZZ Top had been releasing songs with playful, yet sexually-charged lyrics for years. Their first hit was "Tush" in 1975, which was probably more offensive, but the band was less popular then so it drew fewer protests.The video was very popular. Just like their videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'" and "Sharp Dressed Man," it featured Billy Gibbons' 1933 Ford Hot Rod, which he called The Eliminator. The big difference in "Legs" is that the main character is a girl.The video also had the same director (Tim Newman) and featured the same three Playboy models: Jeana Tomasino (later Jeana Keogh), Kymberly Herrin and Daniele Arnaud, but instead of sweeping a guy off in The Eliminator, the models rescue a girl who desperately needs some confidence. They give her a makeover and teach her how to handle guys to get what she wants.The band also appeared in the clip, but were secondary to the girls and the car. Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill had been growing their beards for four years, so they were instantly recognizable, and the shot of their fuzzy guitars rotating when they took their hands off it became a classic early-MTV image. The network was in its third year and did not have a huge amount of videos in its library, and "Legs" became a mainstay.Eliminator was the first ZZ Top album to use synthesizers. The new sound, along with the exposure on MTV, helped the album sell over 10 million copies.In 2002, Kid Rock recorded this for the World Wrestling Federation album WWF Forced Entry. It was a tribute to WWF diva Stacy Keibler.From a songwriting perspective, this one hits the mark as one that is instantly understood on a universal level, which gave it huge hit potential. Craig Goldy, who was a guitarist in the band Dio and later became a staff songwriter at Warner Bros., told us: "'She's got legs, she knows how to use 'em.' The first two lines, the story's done. Nobody's going, 'What's this song about?'"