Music Friday: ZZ Top Lists Jewelry-Wardrobe Must-Haves in 'Sharp Dressed Man'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, the members of ZZ Top tick off a list of jewelry-wardrobe must-haves in their 1983 classic, “Sharp Dressed Man.”

Original band members Dusty Hill, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard share their tips about snappy accessorizing in the second verse.

They sing, “Gold watch, diamond ring / I ain’t missin’ not a single thing / Cufflinks, stick pin / When I step out I’m gonna do you in / They come runnin’ just as fast as they can / ‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man.”

Written by Gibbons, Beard and Joe Michael Hill, “Sharp Dressed Man” appeared as the third track on ZZ Top’s popular 1983 album Eliminator. The album sold more than 10 million copies, earning it a Diamond certification.

The single topped out at #56 on the US Billboard 100 and remains one of ZZ Tops’ most enduring signature songs. The group performed it live at the 1997 VH1 Fashion Awards and during the halftime festivities of the 2008 Orange Bowl.

“Sharp dressed depends on who you are,” Hill told Spin magazine in 1985. “If you’re on a motorcycle, really sharp leather is great. If you’re a punk rocker, you can get sharp that way. You can be sharp or not sharp in any mode.”

Founded in Houston in 1969 as a blues-inspired rock band, ZZ Top featured its three core members from 1970 until Hill's untimely death in 2021 at age 72. The band continues to tour with the bassist-vocalist duties passed on to Elwood Francis, who had been the band's guitar tech for three decades.

Gibbons told Q magazine that their first gig at a Knights of Columbus Hall outside of Houston in 1970 was attended by just one person.

“We shrugged and pressed onwards,” he said. “We took a break halfway through, went out and bought him a Coke.”

Over the course of the following 54 years, the band would go on to sell more than 50 million albums worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Please check out ZZ Top’s live performance of “Sharp Dressed Man.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Sharp Dressed Man”
Written by Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and Joe Michael Hill. Performed by ZZ Top.

Clean shirt, new shoes
And I don’t know where I am goin’ to
Silk suit, black tie,
I don’t need a reason why
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man

Gold watch, diamond ring,
I ain’t missin’ not a single thing
Cufflinks, stick pin,
When I step out I’m gonna do you in
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man

Top coat, top hat,
And I don’t worry ’cause my wallet’s fat
Black shades, white gloves,
Lookin’ sharp lookin’ for love
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man

Credit: Photo by Tilly antoine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.