These 3 Classic Rock Bands From the 1970s Embraced Synths in the 1980s To Record Career-Defining Hits

The Moog synthesizer on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Save The Life Of My Child” sounds like an alien invasion. A psychedelic intrusion on a 1968 folk tune. Two years later, Keith Emerson recorded his iconic synth part on “Lucky Man”, Emerson, Lake And Palmer’s prog-rock ballad.

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But as The Who, Pink Floyd, Yes, and others prominently featured synthesizers on classic tracks in the 1970s, some waited until the following decade to expand beyond the typical rock preference for guitar, bass, drums, and traditional keys like piano and organ.

I want to highlight a few rock bands from the 1970s that fully embraced synthesizers in the 1980s. With each artist below, their synth-heavy tracks became career-defining hits.

ZZ Top

Listening to ZZ Top’s boogie masterpiece Tres Hombres back-to-back with Eliminator shows how much the trio evolved their sound. The gated synth propelling “Legs” helped define ZZ Top (almost) as much as Billy Gibbons’s guitar playing, as Eliminator made them superstars. “Legs” mixed blues rock with new wave and reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Next, listen to “Sleeping Bag” from Afterburner. This is ZZ Top on krautrock.

Throughout music history, artists have updated the blues in some manner. When ZZ Top continued the tradition, they may have alienated some fans. But it was groundbreaking at the time, as the band also embraced MTV and gained a larger audience.

Van Halen

“Jump” wasn’t the first time Eddie Van Halen experimented with a keyboard. Check out “And The Cradle Will Rock” and the intro’s flanging Wurlitzer electric piano. Woman And Children First was released in 1980, but it wasn’t until four years later that the world’s greatest rock guitarist landed his biggest hit with the synth-rock song, “Jump”. He didn’t stop there. When Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth, Van Halen continued to feature synthesizers on hits like “Why Can’t This Be Love”, “Dreams”, and “When It’s Love”.

Meanwhile, the opening synth chords in “Jump” are as recognizable as any giant riff Van Halen ever recorded.

Rush

The synthesizer became a prominent part of Rush on the band’s 1980 release Permanent Waves. The ambient textures on “Freewill” and “Jacob’s Ladder” helped expand the trio’s sonic ambitions while also embracing the popularity of new wave. But on Rush’s defining prog-jam, “Tom Sawyer”, an ominous synthesizer lays the foundation for Neil Peart’s rolling percussion.

I don’t know if drummers can shred, but Peart makes the case here that they indeed can shred. Still, while Peart does math with drumsticks, the synth on “Tom Sawyer” is as much a star in the song as Mark Twain’s titular character.

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