El Loco

El Loco is the seventh studio album by American blues rock band ZZ Top, released in 1981 (see 1981 in music). The title means "The Crazy One" in Spanish. Guitarist/singer Billy Gibbons has stated that the recordings of this album was the first time the three members of the band were isolated from one another in the studio, rather than recording simultaneously in the same room. It also foreshadowed ZZ Top's New Wave direction later in the decade, with early experimentations in synthesizer backing on certain tracks.

El Loco was produced by Bill Ham, and recorded and originally mixed by Terry Manning. Biographer David Blayney explains in his book Sharp Dressed Men that recording engineer Linden Hudson was involved as a pre-producer on this album. Linden did not receive credit for engineering the tracks on "Hippie Pad", which were used on the final album mix. In 1987, most of the band's back catalog received a controversial "digitally enhanced" remix treatment for CD release, however, El Loco did not receive this remix treatment. The original mix of this album has been available on CD since 1987.