TOP DOLLARS: Professional sports owners have been...

TOP DOLLARS: Professional sports owners have been unable to do anything about skyrocketing contracts, with light-hitting utility infielders commanding millions. But record company heads seem ready to take a stand, and the line is being drawn at ZZ Top.

With ZZ’s Warner Bros. Records contract expiring with the release this week of a greatest-hits package, the group’s manager, Bill Ham, and attorney John Branca are said to be asking for a $55-million, five-album deal that would put the bearded Texans in a league with the Rolling Stones, Madonna and Michael and Janet Jackson.

The response so far: Not by the hair on their chinny chin chins.

The band’s albums sell well--1990’s “Recycler” sold nearly 4 million worldwide--but no one is ready to put ZZ in the top-dollar bracket, especially since Warner Bros. will retain the rights to the back catalogue.

“They won’t get half that much,” said one record company head. “That’s just Bill Ham dreaming.”

Some insiders are predicting that the ZZ team will ultimately have to settle for a much smaller deal, most likely from . . . Warner Bros. Ham--who is also involved in a messy legal tangle with former client Clint Black and a war of words with publicist Jonni Hartman, mother of Black’s wife, actress Lisa Hartman--would not comment on the ZZ Top negotiations.

Meanwhile, rock stars aren’t the only ones looking to sign big-bucks contracts these days. Country hero Garth Brooks--whose “Ropin’ the Wind” album topped the pop charts and has sold 7 million copies--is putting the final touches on a long-term, multimillion-dollar pact with Liberty Records, the Nashville label owned by Capitol-EMI.

Details of the deal are unknown, but Brooks--who is recording material for a new studio album plus tracks for a Christmas collection--is expected to receive the kind of recording advances and royalty rates that have been reserved for the top pop superstars, and previously way off-limits to even the biggest country performers.