The Most and Least-Played Song Live Off Every ZZ Top Album

If there is one place ZZ Top feels the most at home, it’s the stage.

The band has been touring more or less nonstop since 1969, though they’ve also somehow managed to find time to record 15 studio albums. At the time of this writing, ZZ Top is on tour, with dates scheduled literally all over the world.

“Going back to the early days, playing live for us, that was the warm-up fields,” Billy Gibbons said to MusicRadar in 2016. “Not only did it get warm, we aimed for it to get hot.”

We’d argue that get hot they did. For over 50 years, ZZ Top has been burning up live stages and attracting rock fans of all ages to their shows. Using data from setlist.fm, we’ve crunched the numbers and figured out the most and least-played song live from every one of their studio albums. Of course, there are some songs that have never seen a set list, but for those that have, here’s how it breaks down.

Album: ZZ Top’s First Album (1971)
Most-played: “Brown Sugar”
Least-played: “Old Man”

When ZZ Top stepped into Robin Hood Studios in Tyler, Texas in the fall of 1970, they genuinely did not know what their future held. “We weren’t certain if we’d get another chance in the studio, but we had high hopes,” Gibbons explained to MusicRadar in 2013. Obviously, they got many more chances, but they gave an impressive first-time effort here. “Brown Sugar” is the clear winner for most-played with 480 performances. On the low end, two songs from the aptly-titled ZZ Top’s First Album have never been played live — “Squank” and “Bedroom Thang” — making “Old Man” the next least-played with one performance in 1974.

Album: Rio Grande Mud (1972)
Most-played: “Just Got Paid”
Least-played: “Mushmouth Shoutin'”

Just two tracks from this album, 1972’s Rio Grande Mud, have been neglected set list-wise, “Apologies to Pearly” and “Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell,” but the former is an instrumental, so we’ll let it slide. In the meantime, “Mushmouth Shoutin’” got exactly one play in July of 1974 and hasn’t been heard since, while “Just Got Paid” has racked up 1,049 plays. “We were gigging 350-odd days a year with some really wicked headliners,” Gibbons recalled in his 2020 book Rock + Roll Gearhead. “By ’72 our onstage skills were getting good and sharp.”

Album: Tres Hombres (1973)
Most-played: “La Grange”
Least-played: Tie Between “Have You Heard?” and “Hot, Blue and Righteous”

It’s easily one of the most recognizable guitar riffs in rock, the one from ZZ Top’s “La Grange,” which is not only the most-played song from Tres Hombres, but also from the band’s entire catalog. “The simplicity of that song was part of the magic — only two chords,” Gibbons said to Rolling Stone in 2015. “And the break coming out of the solo — those notes are straight Robert Johnson. He did it as a shuffle. I just dissected the notes.” The only song from this album that hasn’t been played is “Shiek,” which makes for a tie for the next least-played between “Have You Heard?” and “Hot, Blue and Righteous.”

Album: Fandango! (1975)
Most-played: “Tush”
Least-played: “Balinese”

Here’s the thing: if you’re looking at the setlist.fm data, you’ll see that John Lee Hooker’s “Long Distance Boogie” is the least-played song from Fandango! But we’re not entirely certain how the numbers stack up considering that song is technically part of “Backdoor Medley,” which ZZ Top has performed 30 times. So, we’re giving the official title of least-played to “Balinese” with 25 performances. At the top is none other than “Tush,” a No. 20 hit for the band.

Album: Tejas (1976)
Most-played: “Arrested for Driving While Blind”
Least-played: Tie Between “Asleep in the Desert” and “Avalon Hideaway”

“Asleep in the Desert” may be an instrumental, but it did manage to squeeze in one play in September of 1980. That track is tied with “Avalon Hideaway” for least-played, which got its one shot in October of 1981. (“Snappy Kakkie” is the only song from Tejas to not yet see a set list.) And then there’s “Arrested for Driving While Blind” at No. 1 with 177 plays — not bad, but nothing compared to other ZZ tracks. “It’s fair to say that this is a transitional record,” Gibbons would later recall, “although I’m not really sure what we were transitioning from and what we were becoming.”

Album: Deguello (1979)
Most-played: “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide”
Least-played: “Lowdown in the Street”

We have to assume ZZ Top isn’t doing this on purpose but yet again, here’s an album where only one song has never been played live, this time in the form of “Esther Be the One” from 1979’s Deguello. With 20 plays to its name, “Lowdown in the Street” takes the title then for least-played, while “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” has racked up a hefty 1,320 performances. That phrase popped into Gibbons’ head many years ago while leaving a gig with a friend. “He and I stumbled out of the Vulcan Gas Company, a nightclub in Austin. We’d just seen Freddie King,” Gibbons explained to Guitar World in 2008. “And we were searching for a phrase that would sum it up. He said, ‘Man he’s bad.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, he’s nationwide.'”

Album: El Loco (1981)
Most-played: “Tube Snake Boogie”
Least-played: Tie Between “Don’t Tease Me” and “I Wanna Drive You Home”

El Loco is where ZZ Top started dipping their toes into using synthesizers in their music. “Linden [Hudson, who plays synths on the album but was left uncredited] had no fear and was eager to experiment in ways that would frighten most bands,” Gibbons recalled. “For us, there was no turning back.” Unfortunately, the lovely ballad “Leila” has not been played live, and neither has “It’s So Hard,” but there’s a tie for next least-played between “Don’t Tease Me” and “I Wanna Drive You Home,” each of which have been played nine times. “Tube Snake Boogie” has gathered up 864 plays — tube snake is, apparently, lingo for a surfboard.

Album: Eliminator (1983)
Most-played: “Sharp Dressed Man”
Least-played: “Bad Girl”

Out of all of ZZ Top’s albums, 1983’s Eliminator is the most commercially successful — it’s got not just one or two hit singles, but four of them. Three songs from this release have never been played live, “Thug,” “Dirty Dog” and “If I Could Only Flag Her Down,” making “Bad Girl” the next least-played with three performances. At the top of the list is “Sharp Dressed Man” with 1,706 plays, which means it’s the fourth most-played song of ZZ Top’s entire catalog.

Album: Afterburner (1985)
Most-played: “Rough Boy”
Least-played: “Delirious”

Fans of “Woke Up with Wood,” “I Got the Message” and “Dipping Low (In the Lap of Luxury)” from 1985’s Afterburner have never gotten to hear those songs live. “Delirious” is the least-played then with 17 performances, most of them in 2011 for some reason. Then you have “Rough Boy” at the No. 1 spot with 295 plays. “‘Rough Boy’ is a pretty li’l song,” Dusty Hill said to The Oklahoman in 2007. “We’re doin’ it this tour. We pulled it back out. I like that song so much, I had it played at my wedding.”

Album: Recycler (1990)
Most-played: “My Head’s in Mississippi”
Least-played: “Penthouse Eyes”

Recycler is where ZZ Top started shifting back toward a looser feel, away from polished synthesizers — Gibbons would later refer to Recycler as “our Tres Hombres/Eliminator album.” “Penthouse Eyes” only has three plays to its name, which is still more than the zero “Decision or Collision” has. The clear winner here for most-played is “My Head’s in Mississippi,” which has been played a whopping 965 times, a track that Gibbons called “a great example of how we mixed the new with the old.”

Album: Antenna (1994)
Most-played: “Pincushion”
Least-played: “Cover Your Rig”

Four songs from 1994’s Antenna have never been played live, but most of them hover around 50 plays a piece. The exceptions are “Cover Your Rig,” which managed to squeak in two plays, both in 1994, and “Pincushion,” which has accumulated 945 plays. Interestingly, “Cover Your Rig” was more or less the catalyst for the whole album, with the band hitting on it early in the sessions — “after we did that we saw the direction to take,” Gibbons told Mojo back then.

Album: Rhythmeen (1996)
Most-played: “Vincent Price Blues”
Least-played: Tie Between “Black Fly,” “Hairdresser” and “Zipper Job”

Rhythmeen marks the last album ZZ Top would make with their longtime producer Bill Ham. Interestingly, it’s the last four tracks of the album that have never seen a set list: “My Mind Is Gone,” “Loaded,” “Prettyhead” and “Hummbucking, Pt. 2.” Meanwhile, there’s a three-way tie for next least-played between “Black Fly,” “Hairdresser” and “Zipper Job,” each of which have been played once. Even the album’s most-played song, “Vincent Price Blues,” only has 129 performances under its belt — small potatoes compared to others on this list.

Album: XXX (1999)
Most-played: “Fearless Boogie”
Least-played: “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” by Elvis Presley

Back in 2015, UCR wrote about ZZ Top’s 1999 release XXX, describing it as “a wrongly overlooked, dirty little comet of an album.” Generally speaking, the album didn’t wildly impress or wildly disappoint. As The Austin Chronicle put it: “This is the 1999 model: millennium blues — slick, steely, modern.” Not many songs from this album have been played. At the bottom of the list with 9 plays is a cover of Elvis Presley‘s “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear.” The most-played is “Fearless Boogie,” which has gotten a small but mighty 37 performances.

Album: Mescalero (2003)
Most-played: “Buck Nekkid”
Least-played: “Piece”

This will sound crazy but only two songs from 2003’s Mescalero have been played live: “Buck Nekkid” and “Piece.” In other words, those are also the most and least-played songs from the album, respectively. If you like ZZ Top songs with Hill on lead vocals, you’ll dig “Piece.”

Album: La Futura (2012)
Most-played: “I Gotsta Get Paid”
Least-played: “Heartache in Blue”

It’s almost like a rock ‘n’ roll rite of passage to make at least one album with Rick Rubin. ZZ Top’s was 2012’s La Futura. “When we got together with Rick Rubin, he said, ‘My idea of ZZ Top is three guys playing together at the same time with the red light turned on,'” Gibbons recalled to MusicRadar that year. “That sounded just right to us.” Only four of the album’s 10 tracks have been played live: “I Gotsta Get Paid” (865 plays), “Chartreuse” (406), “Flyin’ High” (227) and “Heartache in Blue” (42).