Song of the Day 7/29: ZZ Top, “Tush”

Texas blues-rockers ZZ Top are undergoing their first personnel change in 51 years today because bassist and second lead vocalist Dusty Hill died in his sleep Tuesday. The band became famous in the early years of MTV, which debuted about the same time ZZ Top began to augment their power-trio boogie with new wave trappings. Some slick videos full of leggy models made them a big hit with the young male audience, but for a decade before that they paid their dues with near-constant touring. (They did take a two-year break in the late ’70s, during which Hill and guitarist Billy Gibbons grew their trademark “Texas goatees.”)

Their first hit came on their third LP, “Tres Hombres,” which many fans still consider their best album. Hill sings lead on “Tush,” which made it to No. 20 in 1973 and remains in rotation on classic-rock stations to this day.

Hill’s cause of death was not released, but just last week he bowed out of a concert with what was reported as a hip injury, replaced by the band’s guitar tech, Elwood Francis. Gibbons said that one of Hill’s last wishes was that the band go on, and it will with Francis as Hill’s permanent replacement. No word on whether he intends to grow out his beard.