Album · ZZ Top
Degüello by ZZ Top
Degüello is an album by ZZ Top, released in 1979. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 101 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Cheap Sunglasses”, on 66 lists with a best position of #128.
Degüello, ZZ Top's sixth studio album and their first for Warner Bros., rolled out in 1979 after a two-year break, and the Houston trio came back looking and sounding different. Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill had grown matching chest-length beards and taken to sunglasses, and Gibbons had spent time in Europe soaking up punk, which put a fresh, wiry snap into the boogie. Bill Ham produced, Terry Manning recorded and mixed, and Frank Beard kept it all rolling with a groove you could set your watch by.
They got playful with the gadgets too. Gibbons caught a talk show disguising a guest's voice with a pitch shifter, had Manning track down the box, and ran vocals and guitars through it on "Manic Mechanic". It was also the first time they put covers on a studio record: Isaac Hayes and David Porter's "I Thank You" and "Dust My Broom". Then there's "Cheap Sunglasses", a leering, lowdown strut that rock radio's countdowns still can't shake. It went platinum.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Degüello on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cheap Sunglasses | 66 | #128 | – | 1994–2026 | |
| 2 | I Thank You | 34 | #131 | – | 1991–2025 | |
| 3 | Manic Mechanic | 1 | #425 | – | 2010 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.