"Tush" is a song by American

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre that combines elements of blues and rock music. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes w ...

band

ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound ...

and was the only single from their fourth album ''

Fandango! ''Fandango!'' is the fourth album by the American rock band ZZ Top, released in 1975. The album's first side consists of selections from live shows, with the second side being new studio recordings. A remastered and expanded edition of this albu ...

''. The song was named the 67th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.

Composition

The song is a

twelve-bar blues The 12-bar blues (or blues changes) is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on ...

in the key of G in standard tuning. Bassist Dusty Hill has said the song was written at a sound check in about ten minutes. The recording was produced by

Bill Ham Billy Mack Ham (February 4, 1937 – June 20, 2016) was an American music impresario, best known as the manager, producer, and image-maker for the blues-rock band ZZ Top. Ham also gained prominence in the country music world by discovering and man ...

and recorded and mixed by

Terry Manning Terry Manning is an American photographer, composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, audio engineer, and visual artist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, ...

. The title is a

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

, referring both to slang for

buttocks The buttocks (singular: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed ...

(with the connotation of "a piece of ass"), and slang for "luxurious" or "lavish", according to a 1985 interview with Hill in ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' magazine. Gibbons said "We were in Florence, Alabama, playing in a rodeo arena with a dirt floor. We decided to play a bit in the afternoon. I hit that opening lick, and Dave Blayney, our lighting director, gave us the hand wirls a finger in the air "Keep it going." I leaned over to Dusty and said, "Call it 'Tush.'" The Texas singer

Roy Head Roy Kent Head (January 9, 1941 – September 21, 2020) was an American singer, best known for his hit song "Treat Her Right". Career Roy Kent Head was born in Three Rivers, Texas and achieved fame as a member of musical group The Traits from ...

had a flip side in 1966, "Tush Hog." Down South, the word meant deluxe, plush. And a tush hog was very deluxe. We had the riff going, Dusty fell in with the vocal, and we wrote it in three minutes. We had the advantage of that dual meaning of the word "tush" rins It's that secret blues language — saying it without saying it."

Reception

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' said that it has "some slide lead guitar work that'll have 'em bumpin' their 'tushes' from Dallas to L.A." and called the song "super summer dance rock and roll."

Hill's death

As the closing song in their setlists for many tours "Tush" would be the last song Hill would sing. After the death of Hill in 2021, the band performed the song for the first time on July 30, 2021, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with Gibbons placing Dusty's hat on his microphone then Gibbons taking lead vocals to the song. A few tour dates later on August 6, Gibbons told the crowd “We’re going to have Dusty singing through the magic of Memorex.” The band would now end their concerts by playing the song along to an audio vocal recording from Hill's last performance.

Chart performance

"Tush" peaked at number twenty on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100.Joel Whitburn's Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100 1959-2004 In Chicago, "Tush" peaked at number five on WLS.

Year-end Chart

Personnel

Billy Gibbons William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...

guitar *

Dusty Hill Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top for more than 50 years. He also sang lead and backing vocals and played keyboards. Hill was born in Dallas, Texas, an ...

bass guitar, vocals * Frank Bearddrums

References

External links

* {{Authority control ZZ Top songs Songs written by Frank Beard (musician) Songs written by Dusty Hill Songs written by Billy Gibbons 1975 singles 1975 songs London Records singles Songs about Texas