"Sharp Dressed Man" is a song performed by

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 so ...

from their 1983 album ''

Eliminator Eliminator may refer to: People and characters *The Eliminators (band), a band which covered " The Saint" from '' Surfbeat Behind the Iron Curtain, Volume 1'' * The Eliminators, a professional wrestling tag team that consisted of John Kronus and ...

''. The song was produced by band manager

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 ma ...

, 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 Adam ...

. Pre-production recording engineer Linden Hudson was very involved in the early stages of this song's production.

Composition

The guitar solo in the song was chosen by ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original arti ...

'' as number 43 in their 2009 list of the 50 Greatest Guitar Solos.

Appearances

At 2007's VH1 Rock Honors,

Nickelback Nickelback is a Canadian Rock music, rock band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta. It is composed of guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Ryan Peake, bassist Mike Kroeger, and drummer Daniel Adai ...

covered the song as a tribute (

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 ...

had earlier made a guest appearance on Nickelback's own songs "

Rockstar Rock Star or Rockstar may refer to: Films * ''Rock Star'' (2001 film), an American film starring Mark Wahlberg * ''Rockstar'' (2011 film), an Indian Hindi-language film by Imtiaz Ali * ''Rockstar'' (2015 film), an Indian Malayalam-language fi ...

" and "Follow You Home"). ZZ Top played this song at halftime of the 2008 Orange Bowl college football bowl game. In 2012 the song was chosen to be the opening theme song for the A&E reality show '' Duck Dynasty''. The show ran on A&E from 2012 until 2017. In 2020, the song reentered the ''Billboard'' charts following the release of the documentary ''ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas''.

Music video

The "Sharp Dressed Man" music video continues the story of the " Gimme All Your Lovin'" video, and forms a loose trilogy ending with the video for " Legs". In the video, a male parking valet is remade as a star by a trio of women driving up in the Eliminator car; the band grants him the keys to the car. The video was directed by Tim Newman, who had also directed the video for "Gimme All Your Lovin'". Warner Bros. Records record executive Jeff Ayeroff said that Warner did not want to do a second video, but he convinced them to pay more money for the "Sharp Dressed Man" video. Newman said, "When they asked me to do another one, the idea that you would do a sequel in a form that isn't even a form struck me as funny, in a very insidery way." He said that a beer company, likely Schlitz, secretly paid Warner for a

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in the video, but MTV refused to air it until the shots were removed. After this damaged his reputation, Newman told Warner he would no longer direct their videos. After negotiating, he returned to direct the video for "Legs".

Charts

Year-end charts

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

, lead and rhythm guitars *

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 Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, keyboards * Frank Beard –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

* Linden Hudson – preproduction engineer * Terry Manning –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

References

{{Authority control 1983 singles ZZ Top songs Songs written by Frank Beard (musician) Songs written by Dusty Hill Songs written by Billy Gibbons Brad Paisley songs Warner Records singles 1983 songs MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction