“La Grange” is the first single from ZZ Top’s 1973 Tres Hombres album. It is also their first single to chart in the Billboard Hot 100. A 1992 lawsuit alleged that the one-chord song’s signature riff had been stolen from one of the versions of bluesman John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillun'”. The court ruled that under the 1909 Copyright Act, an “unpublished” song was entitled to protection under what is known as State “Common-law Copyright protection”, until either it is published or it is registered with the U.S Copyright Office. Although the Copyright Act is unclear as to what constitutes “publishing”, other than publication of sheet music, the majority of courts have agreed the sale of recordings to the general public rises to “publishing” for purposes of common-law copyright. Under the 1909 Copyright Act, an author of a creative work, is entitled to 28 years of copyright protection, with the option to re-register for an additional 28 years. The court also found, under the 1909 Copyright Act, that once a song is published and the author has failed to register the work with the U.S Copyright Office, the song immediately, and irrevocably falls into the public domain. In this case, the courts found that Besman had failed to properly copyright the song in a timely manner, so the early versions of the song were considered part of the public domain, which meant Z.Z. Top was not liable to Besman or La Cienega Music Co.