Personnel: Billy Gibbons (vocals, guitar, fiddle, harmonica, baritone saxophone, keyboards); Frank Beard (vocals, alto saxophone, drums, percussion); Dusty Hill (vocals, tenor saxophone, keyboards).

Audio Remasterer: Bob Ludwig.

Liner Note Authors: James Austin; Tom Vickers.

Recording information: Ardent Studios, Memphis, TN; Memphis Sound Productions, Memphis, TN; Robin Hood Brian Studios, Tyler, TX.

Photographers: Helmut Werd; James Patrick Cooper; Ross Halfin.

Since Rhino released an exhaustive four-disc ZZ Top box in October 2003, some may question the appearance of a double-disc retrospective in June 2004, a mere eight months after the box set. The two may be released awfully close to each other, but they do play to different audiences -- in other words, there are a bunch of fans who want all the hits, but not a full box set, and that's what the 38-track Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top delivers. Not that it gets everything right -- there are a few classic album cuts, like "Leila" and "I Got the Six," that probably should have been included, and ending the set with a live version of "Cheap Sunglasses" and 12" remixes of "Legs" and "Velcro Fly" leaves a bad aftertaste -- but it gets it close enough, containing all of their biggest hits and a great cross-section of album tracks and AOR favorites. And apart from the aforementioned bewildering final three tracks, it's sequenced well, with the down-n-dirty '70s material on the first disc, and the MTV hits from the '80s on the second. There's still a need for a single-disc that has all the biggest hits, but until that comes along, Rancho Texicano is the best and most concise overview of that lil' ol' band from Texas. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

In its long history, ZZ Top followed a career trajectory that took the group to unforeseen heights of commercial success. Starting as a feisty blues-based trio, the band never abandoned its original inclinations, but smartly expanded its approach to reflect contemporary styles. However, far from turning its back on its roots in the 1980s, the boys from Texas embedded those blues elements into their biggest hits.

The two-disc TEXICANO offers the perfect amount of space to tell the ZZ Top tale with the succinct drama of the band's best songs (the Top had previously been showcased with a single-disc GREATEST HITS and the four-CD box CHROME, SMOKE & BBQ). Presented chronologically, the set starts with a bang as the trio, by the time of 1970's ZZ TOP'S FIRST ALBUM, was already a perfectly tuned hotrod. The mid-'70s found the hits getting bigger, but what was big for a blues-based band became enormous as the '80s dawned. "Cheap Sunglasses" and then the group's smart embrace of videos and electronics ("Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp Dressed Man," and "Legs") expanded its audience into the millions. Latter-day tracks reveal that that although ZZ Top wandered from the strict blues path at times, it never strayed too far from its trademark Texas boogie sound.