Songoftheday 1/9/15 - You need just enough of that sticky stuff to hold the seams of your fine blue jeans...

"Velcro Fly" - ZZ Top
from the album Afterburner (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #35 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3

Today's Song of the Day is by the Texan rock group ZZ Top, whose second foray into the land of synthesizers, Afterburner, had spun off three hit pop singles with "Stages", "Rough Boy", and the top-ten "Sleeping Bag". The fourth single from the album was the frenetic boogie of "Velcro Fly". Written by the trio and produced by Bill Ham, it was so far into the pop/new wave camp that they even forwent the long-standing Eliminator car plot for a wacky slice of what was up-to-date editing with embarassing dance moves that predated the Bangles' "Walk Like An Egyptian"...

"Velcro Fly" became the fourth top-40 pop hit from Afterburner in August of 1986. The single also crossed over to both the Mainstream Rock (#15) and Dance Club Play (#43) charts in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single was a minor hit in the UK and Germany, but down in New Zealand it was a top-10 smash...

The song would be ZZ Top's last time (so far) in the pop top-40. The third of their synth-heavy albums, Recycler, included the Back To The Future III song "Doubleback", one of three songs from the set to top the Rock radio chart, but stopped halfway on the Hot 100 at #50. Its follow-up, "Give It Up", was their final Hot 100 appearance at #79. Switching record labels to RCA in the early 90s, the band returned to their electric blues-rock roots, and while they didn't click with pop radio, they returned to the top of the rock chart with "Pincushion" in 1994. Their most recent rock hit was in 2000 with "36-22-36" (#31 Mainstream Rock).

Up tomorrow: Romance emerges for a revamped hard rock band.