Song · ZZ Top
“Jesus Just Left Chicago” by ZZ Top
From the album Tres hombres (1973)
“Jesus Just Left Chicago” by ZZ Top appears on 3 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2001 and 2023. It was first released in 1973 on the album Tres hombres. Its best result is #182 on The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,907 indie & aaa song of all time.
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"Jesus Just Left Chicago" rolls in on Tres Hombres, the third ZZ Top album, released by London Records in July 1973, and it doesn't so much start as ooze out of the tail end of "Waitin' for the Bus", the two cuts welded together with barely a breath between them. The three hombres share the writing credit, Billy Gibbons on electric guitar, Dusty Hill on bass and backing vocals, Frank Beard on drums and percussion, and Bill Ham produced, with Terry Manning and Robin Hood Brians engineering.
How that seam happened is still argued over. A Houston Chronicle writer claimed in 2013 that the engineer had simply cut too much tape; Manning, who made the edit, answered in 2017 that it wasn't planned but wasn't an accident either. It all sits on the album that broke the band commercially in America.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 386 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2020 | 627 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2023 | 182 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
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