Velcro Fly

"Velcro Fly"
Single by ZZ Top
from the album Afterburner
B-side	"Woke Up With Wood"
Released	July 1986
Recorded	1985
Genre	Rock
Length	3:29
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Billy Gibbons Dusty Hill Frank Beard
Producer(s)	Bill Ham
ZZ Top singles chronology
"Rough Boy" (1985) "Velcro Fly" (1986) "Doubleback" (1990)

"Velcro Fly" is the fourth single off ZZ Top's 1985 album Afterburner. The song peaked at #15 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, and #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986.

A 12" version is featured on the box set Chrome, Smoke & BBQ.

Music video

The music video for "Velcro Fly" directed by Daniel Kleinman features Egyptian hieroglyphics (possibly a reference to other songs from the album such as "Sleeping Bag") and female dancers, a common theme in almost every ZZ Top music video. The video also has dance moves choreographed by pop singer Paula Abdul.

The video was released on the DVD Greatest Hits: The Video Collection, along with other videos from the band's albums Eliminator and Recycler.

Reception

Robert Christgau called the song a "highlight" on Afterburner.

In popular culture

The song appears in Stephen King's novel, The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, where in the series's post-apocalyptic alternate reality of Mid-World, the song's looped percussion intro, played via a large PA system in the decaying city of Lud, is referred to as "the God Drums". In the book, Eddie Dean asserts that the song was never released as a single in his world, in the audiobook an actual sample of Velcro Fly is used to accompany the narration.

Charts

Chart (1986)	Peak position
UK Singles Chart	54
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	35
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play	43
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	15

Personnel

• Billy Gibbons - guitar, vocals
• Dusty Hill - keyboards
• Frank Beard - drums