"Sharp Dressed Man" is a song by American rock band ZZ Top, released on their 1983 album Eliminator. The song was produced by band manager Bill Ham, and recorded and mixed by Terry Manning. 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 as number 43 in their 2009 list of the 50 Greatest Guitar Solos.
Appearances At 2007's VH1 Rock Honors, Nickelback covered the song as a tribute (Billy Gibbons had earlier made a guest appearance on Nickelback's own songs "Rockstar" and "Follow You Home").
ZZ Top played this song at halftime of the 2008 Orange Bowl college football bowl game.
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 Bros. for a product placement 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 Chart (1983–1985)PeakpositionAustralian Kent Music Report66Belgian VRT Top 3015 Dutch Singles Chart9Irish Singles Chart8U.K. Singles Chart22U.S. Billboard Hot 10056U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks8
Chart (2020)Peakposition
Chart (2021)Peakposition
+ Chart (2025) Peakposition
+ Chart (2026) Peakposition Year-end charts Chart (1985)PositionDutch Top 4081
Certifications
Personnel Keyboard, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Music Producer, Harmonica, Synthesizer, Arrangement, Vocals: Billy Gibbons Bass Guitar, Vocals: Dusty Hill Drums: Frank Beard Sound Engineer, Music Producer, Synthesizer, Arrangement: Linden Hudson Keyboard, Sound Engineer, Bass Guitar, Background Vocals, Music Producer, Synthesizer, Arrangement, Drum Machine, Electronic Drums:Terry Manning Background Vocals: Jimi Jamison Record Producer: Bill Ham Mastering Engineer: Bob Ludwig Composer: Frank Beard Composer: Billy Gibbons Composer: Dusty Hill
References