"Tush"
Single by ZZ Top
from the album Fandango!
B-side"Blue Jean Blues"
ReleasedJuly 1975
RecordedDecember 30, 1974 – March 23, 1975
Genre
Length2:15
LabelLondon
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Bill Ham
ZZ Top singles chronology
"La Grange"
(1973)		 "Tush"
(1975)		 "It's Only Love"
(1976)
Audio sample
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"Tush" is a song by American blues rock band ZZ Top and was the only single from their fourth album Fandango! The song was named the 67th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.[2]

Composition

The song is a twelve-bar blues 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 and recorded and mixed by Terry Manning. The title is a double entendre, referring both to slang for buttocks (with the connotation of "a piece of ass"), and slang for "luxurious" or "lavish", according to a 1985 interview with Hill in Spin magazine.[3]

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 [twirls a finger in the air]: "Keep it going." I leaned over to Dusty and said, "Call it 'Tush.'"

The Texas singer Roy Head 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" [grins]. It's that secret blues language — saying it without saying it."[4]

Reception

Cash Box 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."[5] Record World said the song "comes in a tight little hard rock package, just waiting to be let loose to boogie, boogie, boogie!"[6]

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.[7]

Chart performance

"Tush" peaked at number twenty on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.[8] In Chicago, "Tush" peaked at number five on WLS.[9]

Chart (1975) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report) 87
Canada RPM Top Singles[10] 14
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[8] 20
U.S. Cash Box Top 100[11] 12

Year-end Chart

Chart (1975) Position
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[12] 126

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ "Ten Great Blues-Rock Songs by Guitar Rockers". Guitar Player. December 16, 2015. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Vh1 Top 100 Hard Rock Songs". Music.Spreadit.org. January 1, 2009. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  3. ↑ "Tush by ZZ Top Songfacts". Songfacts.com. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
  4. ↑ Fricke, David (November 10, 2015). "Billy Gibbons: My Life in 15 Songs". Rolling Stone.
  5. ↑ "CashBox Singles Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. July 12, 1975. p. 23. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  6. ↑ "Hits of the Week" (PDF). Record World. July 12, 1975. p. 1. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  7. ↑ Skipworth, William (August 9, 2021). "ZZ Top wows crowd at Town & Country Fair". emissourian.com.
  8. 1 2 Joel Whitburn's Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100 1959-2004
  9. ↑ "WLS MUSICRADIO SURVEY - SEPTEMBER 13, 1975 VOL. 15, NO. 49". Oldiesloon.com. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. September 13, 1975. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  11. ↑ "Cash Box Top 100 Singles" (PDF). Cash Box. Vol. 37, no. 16. September 6, 1975. p. 4.
  12. ↑ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 4057b." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
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