''Back in Black'' is the seventh studio album by Australian
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
AC/DC
AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...
. It was released on 25 July 1980 by
Albert Productions
Albert Productions, a division of music publishing and recording company Albert Music, is one of Australia's longest established independent record labels to specialise in rock and roll music. The label was founded in 1963 by Ted Albert, whos ...
and
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
. It is the band's first album to feature lead singer
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson (born 5 October 1947) is an English singer and songwriter. In 1980, after the death of Bon Scott, he became the third lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC. He and the rest of the band were inducted into the Rock and Rol ...
, following the death of previous lead singer
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was an Australian singer and songwriter. He was the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980.
Born in Forfar in Angus, Scotlan ...
.
After the commercial breakthrough of their 1979 album ''
Highway to Hell
''Highway to Hell'' is the sixth studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released on 27 July 1979. It was the last album featuring lead singer Bon Scott, who would die early the following year on 19 February 1980.
Background
By 1978 ...
'', AC/DC was planning to record a follow-up, but in February 1980, Scott died from alcohol poisoning after a drinking binge. Instead of disbanding, they decided to continue on and recruited Johnson, who was previously vocalist for
Geordie
Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitut ...
.
The album was composed by Johnson,
Angus
Angus may refer to:
Media
* ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film
* ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record''
Places Australia
* Angus, New South Wales
Canada
* Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario
* East Angus, Quebec
Scotland
* An ...
and
Malcolm Young
Malcolm Mitchell Young (6 January 1953 – 18 November 2017) was an Australian musician who was the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter of AC/DC. Except for a brief absence in 1988, he was with the band from its beginn ...
, and recorded over seven weeks in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
from April to May 1980 with producer
Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Robert John "Mutt" Lange (born 11 November 1948) is a South African record producer and songwriter, mainly known for his work in rock music as well as his previous marriage to Canadian singer Shania Twain, for whom he wrote and produced several ...
, who had worked on their previous album ''
Highway to Hell
''Highway to Hell'' is the sixth studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released on 27 July 1979. It was the last album featuring lead singer Bon Scott, who would die early the following year on 19 February 1980.
Background
By 1978 ...
''. Following its completion, the group mixed ''Back in Black'' at
Electric Lady Studios
Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer by 1970. Hendrix spent only ten ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The album's all-black cover was designed as a "sign of mourning" for Scott.
As their sixth international studio release, ''Back in Black'' was an unprecedented success. It has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, and is one of the
best-selling albums in music history. The band supported the album with a yearlong world tour, cementing them among the most popular music acts of the early 1980s. The album also received positive critical reception during its initial release, and it has since been included on numerous lists of "greatest" albums. Since its original release, the album has been reissued and remastered multiple times, most recently for digital distribution. On 9 December 2019, it was certified
25× Platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA), making it the
fourth best-selling album in the United States and the best-selling album that never reached the top spot in the American charts.
Background
AC/DC, formed in 1973, first broke into international markets in 1977 with their fourth album, ''
Let There Be Rock
''Let There Be Rock'' is the fourth studio album by Australian rock band, AC/DC. It was originally released on 21 March 1977 in Australia on the Albert Productions label. A modified international edition was released on 25 July 1977 on Atla ...
''.
By 1979, they were poised for greater success with their sixth, ''
Highway to Hell
''Highway to Hell'' is the sixth studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released on 27 July 1979. It was the last album featuring lead singer Bon Scott, who would die early the following year on 19 February 1980.
Background
By 1978 ...
''. Robert John "Mutt" Lange produced the record, making the band's sound more catchy and accessible, and it became their first gold album in the United States, selling over 500,000 copies, while also peaking at number 17 on that country's pop charts and number eight in the United Kingdom.
As the new decade approached, the group set off for the UK and France for the final tour dates of their breakthrough release. They planned to begin recording a follow-up shortly after its completion. On 19 February 1980, Scott went on a
drinking binge
Binge drinking, or heavy episodic drinking, is drinking alcoholic beverages with an intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time, but definitions ( see below) vary considerably.
Binge drinking ...
in a London pub that caused him to lose consciousness, so a friend let him rest in the back of his
Renault 5
The Renault 5 is a four-passenger, three or five-door, front-engine, front-wheel drive hatchback supermini manufactured and marketed by the French automaker Renault over two generations: 1972–1985 (also called R5) and 1984–1996 (also called S ...
overnight. The next morning, Scott was found unresponsive and rushed to
King's College Hospital
King's College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH". It is managed b ...
where medical personnel pronounced him
dead on arrival
Dead on Scene
('' 'DOS' '')
Found dead before first responders get on scene and no medical treatment was given.
Dead on arrival (DOA), also dead in the field and brought in dead (BID), are terms which indicate that a patient was found to be ...
. The
coroner
A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...
ruled that
pulmonary aspiration
Pulmonary aspiration is the entry of material such as pharyngeal secretions, food or drink, or stomach contents from the oropharynx or gastrointestinal tract, into the larynx (voice box) and lower respiratory tract, the portions of the respira ...
of vomit was the cause of Scott's death, but the official cause was listed on the death certificate as "acute
alcoholic poisoning" and classified as "
death by misadventure
In the United Kingdom, death by misadventure is the recorded manner of death for an accidental death, caused by a risk taken voluntarily.
Misadventure in English law, as recorded by coroners and on death certificates and associated documents, ...
". Scott was cremated and his ashes were interred by his family at
Fremantle Cemetery
Fremantle Cemetery is a cemetery located in the eastern part (Palmyra) of Fremantle, Western Australia. Established in 1898, it is known as the final resting place of Bon Scott, several murderers and dozens of other notable Australians. There ...
in
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...
. The loss devastated the band, who considered breaking up. However, friends and family persuaded them to carry on.
After Bon Scott's funeral, the band immediately began auditions for a replacement frontman. At the advice of Lange, the group brought in Geordie singer Brian Johnson, who impressed the group. After the band begrudgingly worked through the rest of the list of applicants in the following days, Johnson returned for a second rehearsal. On 29 March, Malcolm Young called the singer to offer him the job, to his surprise.
Recording and production
As the band commenced writing new material for the followup to ''Highway to Hell'', vocalist Bon Scott, who began his career as a drummer with
The Spektors, recorded the drum tracks on demo recordings of "Let Me Put My Love into You" and "Have a Drink on Me".
In a 2021 interview with ''
Paste'', Angus Young claimed that Scott's contributions to the album were limited to playing drums on early demo versions of the songs "Hells Bells" (instead of "Let Me Put My Love into You") and "Have a Drink on Me." However, this is contradicted by earlier statements by Young himself, including a 1991 interview with ''
Kerrang!
''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...
'' in which in response to a question about Bon having lyrical input on the album he said, "Bon wrote a little of the stuff."
Jesse Fink's 2017 book ''Bon: The Last Highway'' examines the issue of the lyrics and Scott's possible involvement.
Rehearsals for ''Back in Black'' were scheduled over three weeks at London's E-Zee Hire Studios, but it was cut to one week when an opening came up at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, in the Bahamas. Although they preferred to record their next effort in the UK, there were no studios available, and the Bahamas presented a nice tax advantage.
''Back in Black'' was recorded from mid-April to May 1980 at Compass Point with producer "Mutt" Lange. Upon their arrival, the area was being hit by several
tropical storms
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dependi ...
, wreaking havoc on the studio's electricity. Johnson recalled that: "It was hardly any kind of studio, we were in these little concrete cells, comfy mind, you had a bed and a chair. And this big old black lady ran the whole place. Oh, she was fearsome, she ruled that place with a rod of iron. We had to lock the doors at night because she'd warned us about these Haitians who'd come down at night and rob the place. So she bought us all these six-foot fishing spears to keep at the fucking door! It was a bit of a stretch from Newcastle, I can tell you." In addition, their equipment was initially held up by customs, and other gear was slowly freighted over from the UK. Johnson felt pressure during the process, having never recorded with the group. None of Scott's writings were used for the album's lyrics, as the group felt it would seemingly profit from his passing. Johnson reported having trouble adjusting to the environment, and even referenced the bad weather on the opening lines of "Hells Bells" ("I'm rolling thunder, pourin' rain. I'm comin' on like a hurricane. My lightning's flashing across the sky. You're only young but you're gonna die.")
Lange focused particular attention on Johnson's vocals, demanding perfection out of each take.
The general attitude in the studio was optimistic. Engineer Tony Platt was dismayed, however, to find the studio's rooms were not sonically complementary to the group's sound, which was designed to be very dry and compact. A humorous anecdote from the sessions involved a recording being interrupted by a crab shuffling across the studio's wooden floor. Angus Young's particular guitar sound was achieved in part by a wireless guitar device, the
Schaffer–Vega diversity system
The Schaffer–Vega diversity system (SVDS) was a wireless guitar system developed in 1975–76, engineered and prototyped by Ken Schaffer in New York City, and manufactured by the Vega Corporation, El Monte, California. A handheld microphone v ...
, a
Ken Schaffer Ken Schaffer is an American inventor and former publicist.
Inventor
In 1975 Schaffer invented the Schaffer–Vega diversity system, a low-noise/wide dynamic range wireless guitar system that was form-factored as a wireless microphone in 1976. Scha ...
design which provided a signal boost and was reissued as a separate guitar effect in 2014.
Near the end of the process, the band phoned manager Ian Jeffery in search of a bell to include on the album. Jeffery located a foundry to produce the bell, but with seven weeks having already gone by, he suggested Platt record a nearby church's bells. These recordings did not suffice due to the sound of a flurry of birds flying away at each bell hit. The foundry brought forward production on the bell, which turned out perfectly tuned, and it was recorded with
Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio
Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio, also known as LMS (Lane Mobile Studio), is a mobile recording studio originally owned by Ronnie Lane.
History
Lane acquired the studio in 1972. It was one of the first ever mobile recording studios, and consisted of ...
. Following the recording's completion, the group mixed ''Back in Black'' at
Electric Lady Studios
Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer by 1970. Hendrix spent only ten ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
According to
Angus Young
Angus McKinnon Young (born 31 March 1955) is an Australian musician, best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, songwriter, and only remaining original member of the hard rock band AC/DC. He is known for his energetic performances, schoolbo ...
, the album's all-black cover was a "sign of mourning" for Scott.
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
disagreed with the cover, but accepted if the band put a grey outline around the AC/DC logo.
Release and promotion
''Back in Black'' was first released in the United States on 25 July 1980. Its release in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe followed on 31 July, and on 11 August in Australia.
It was an immediate commercial success, debuting at number one on the
British albums chart and reaching number four on the
American chart—which ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' called "an exceptional showing for a heavy-metal album". It topped the British chart for two weeks and remained in the top 10 of the American chart for more than five months. In Australia, it reached number two on the
ARIA Charts
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...
.
After ''Back in Black'' was released, AC/DC's previous records ''Highway to Hell'', ''
If You Want Blood You've Got It
''If You Want Blood You've Got It'' (written as just ''If You Want Blood'') is the first live album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, and their only live album with Bon Scott as lead vocalist. It was originally released in the UK and Europ ...
'', and ''
Let There Be Rock
''Let There Be Rock'' is the fourth studio album by Australian rock band, AC/DC. It was originally released on 21 March 1977 in Australia on the Albert Productions label. A modified international edition was released on 25 July 1977 on Atla ...
'' all re-entered the British charts, which made them the first band since
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
to have four albums in the British Top 100 simultaneously.
''Back in Black''s American success prompted Atlantic, the band's US record company, to release their 1976 ''
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
''Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap'' is the third studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, originally released only in Europe and Australia in 1976. The album was not released in the United States until 1981, more than one year after lead s ...
'' album for the first time in the US; in May 1981 it surpassed ''Back in Black'' on the US chart at number three.
To promote the album, music videos were filmed for the songs "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Hells Bells", the title track, "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution", "Let Me Put My Love into You", and "What Do You Do for Money Honey". Only the first four were released as
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
.
In the US, the single "
You Shook Me All Night Long
"You Shook Me All Night Long" is a song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, from the album ''Back in Black''. The song also reappeared on their later album ''Who Made Who''. It is AC/DC's first single with Brian Johnson as the lead singer, rep ...
"/"Have a Drink on Me" became AC/DC's first Top 40 hit in the country, peaking at no. 35.
On 13 December 2007, the album was certified 22×
multi-platinum
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
by the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
, denoting 22 million American sales. This placed it sixth in the list of best-selling albums in the US.
Worldwide, it went on to sell 50 million copies, leading ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' journalist
Mark Beaumont to call it "the biggest selling hard rock album ever made"; rock historian Brock Helander said it was possibly "the best-selling heavy-metal album in history".
Critical reception
Reviewing for ''Rolling Stone'' in 1980,
David Fricke
David Fricke is an American music journalist who serves as the senior editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, where he writes predominantly about rock music. One of the best known names in rock journalism, his career has spanned over 40 years. I ...
regarded ''Back in Black'' as "not only the best of AC/DC's six American albums" but "the apex of heavy-metal art: the first LP since ''
Led Zeppelin II
''Led Zeppelin II'' is the second studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released on 22 October 1969 in the United States and on 31 October 1969 in the United Kingdom by Atlantic Records. Recording sessions for the album took place ...
'' that captures all the blood, sweat and arrogance of the genre." Red Starr from ''
Smash Hits
''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...
'' was more critical, finding the songs indistinguishable from one another and marred by hypermasculine fantasies, rock music stock phrases, garish guitar, and dull rhythms, on "yet another triumph for lowest common denominator headbanging—the new thoroughly predictable, thoroughly dreadful AC/DC album." He gave the record a score of 3 out of 10.
In a retrospective review, ''Rolling Stone'' critic Christian Hoard praised the album as the band's greatest work, possibly "the leanest and meanest record of all time—balls-out
arena rock
Arena rock (also known as AOR, melodic rock, stadium rock, anthem rock, pomp rock, corporate rock and dad rock; ; ) is a style of rock music that originated in the mid-1970s. As hard rock bands and those playing a softer yet strident kind of po ...
that punks could love."
Barry Walters from ''Rolling Stone'' said ''Back in Black'' "still sounds thoroughly timeless, the essence of unrepentantly simple but savagely crafted hard rock" and "a celebration of thrashing, animal sex", although he observed "mean-spirited sexism" on songs such as "What Do You Do for Money Honey" and "Given the Dog a Bone".
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
was less enthusiastic, finding the band somewhat too "primitive" and their sexual imagery "unimaginative". "Angus Young does come up with killer riffs", he wrote in ''
Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s'' (1990), "though not as consistently as a refined person like myself might hope, and lead singer Brian Johnson sings like there's a cattle prod at his scrotum, just the thing for fans who can't decide whether their newfound testosterone is agony or ecstasy."
As her favourite album,
Kitty Empire
Kitty Empire is the pen name of a British writer and music critic, currently writing for ''The Observer''.
Early life
Empire says that she was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1970 and brought up in Canada, Italy and Egypt before arriving in Britai ...
of ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' acknowledged ''Back in Black'' is "a preposterous, drongoid record ... built on casual sexism, eye-rolling double entendres, a highly questionable attitude to sexual consent ('Don't you struggle/ Don't you fight/ Don't you worry/ Cos it's your turn tonight') a penchant for firearms, and a crass celebration of the unthinking macho hedonism that killed the band's original singer." Nonetheless, she concurred with Fricke's original view of the album as a heavy metal masterpiece while naming it her favourite album ever, "the obsessive soundtrack of my adolescence, the racy middle-brow thriller that spoke to me both as a tomboy who wanted to be one of the guys, and the increasingly female ingenue who needed to work out the world of men. Plus teenagers love death."
The album is featured on many "best of" lists. In 1989, it was ranked No. 26 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the Eighties. The title track was ranked no. 190 on the same magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2001,
VH1 ranked ''Back in Black'' No. 82 on its list of the Top 100 Albums. VH1 also placed the title track at No. 2 on its list of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs. In 2003, the album was ranked No. 73 on ''Rolling Stone''s list of "
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and indust ...
", No. 77 in a 2012 revised list and No. 84 in a 2020 revised list. In 2006, ''
Q'' placed the album at No. 9 in its list of the 40 Best Albums of the '80s. That same year, ''Back in Black'' was included by ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' in its list of the 100 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was listed at No. 2 in the book, ''
100 Best Australian Albums'', in October 2010,
and included in the book ''
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...
'' in 2005.
Legacy and influence
''Back in Black'' is an influential hard rock and heavy metal album. According to
Tim Jonze
Tim Jonze (born 4 February 1980) is a British music journalist for ''NME'', ''Vice'', '' Dazed and Confused'' and ''The Guardian''.
Jonze has reviewed a number of songs and albums, and has interviewed Jake Gyllenhaal, Lily Allen, Bill Drummond, ...
of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', it has been hailed by some as "a high watermark" for heavy metal music. ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' regarded it as an important release in 1980s metal and heavy rock, naming it one of the 20 best metal albums of its decade, while ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' ranked it as one of the 20 greatest heavy metal albums of all time. Paul Brannigan of ''
Metal Hammer
''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' features news, reviews and long-form ...
'' cited it as one of the ten albums that helped reestablish the genre's global popularity in 1980, making it "the greatest year for heavy metal".
According to rock journalist Joe S. Harrington, ''Back in Black'' was released at a time when heavy metal stood at a turning point between a decline and a revival, as most bands in the genre were playing slower tempos and longer guitar solos, while AC/DC and
Van Halen
Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...
adopted punk rock's "high-energy implications" and "constricted their songs into more pop-oriented blasts". Harrington credited producer Lange for drawing AC/DC further away from the blues-oriented rock of their previous albums, and toward a more dynamic attack that concentrated and harmonized each element of the band: "the guitars were compacted into a singular statement of rhythmic efficiency, the rhythm section provided the thunderhorse overdrive, and vocalist Johnson belowed and brayed like the most unhinged practitioner of bluesy top-man dynamics since vintage
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...
." The resulting music, along with contemporaneous records by
Motörhead
Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a precu ...
and
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...
, helped revitalize and reintroduce metal to a younger generation of listeners, "eventually resulting in the punk-metal crossover personified by
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
and others."
In ''
1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die'' (2008),
Tom Moon
Thomas Raphael Moon (born November 3, 1960) is an American saxophonist, author, and music critic. He is known for his book ''1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die''. He has won two Deems Taylor Awards from the American Society of Composers, Auth ...
said ''Back in Black''s "lean mean arena rock" and the production's "delicate balance of power and finesse" defined the commercial side of heavy music for years after its release."
Lange's production for the album had an enduring impact in the music industry; "to this day, producers still use it as the de facto paint-by-numbers guidebook for how a hard-rock record should sound", Harrington wrote.
In the years after its release, studios in Nashville would use it to check the acoustics of a room, while
Motörhead
Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a precu ...
would use it to tune their sound system. American
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
group
Six Feet Under recorded a cover of the entire album under the title ''
Graveyard Classics 2
''Graveyard Classics 2'' is the second cover album by Six Feet Under. It is an album cover version of AC/DC's 1980 album ''Back in Black''.
Track listing
All songs by Brian Johnson, Angus Young and Malcolm Young.
Personnel
;Six Feet Under
...
''.
In December 2021, the album was listed at number one in
''Rolling Stone Australia''s "200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time" countdown.
Track listing
*According to the official AC/DC website and most worldwide releases, track four is "Given the Dog a Bone".
On some albums, particular Australian releases, and also in the
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
, it is sometimes shown as either "Givin' the Dog a Bone" or "Giving the Dog a Bone".
Personnel
AC/DC
*
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson (born 5 October 1947) is an English singer and songwriter. In 1980, after the death of Bon Scott, he became the third lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC. He and the rest of the band were inducted into the Rock and Rol ...
– lead vocals
*
Angus Young
Angus McKinnon Young (born 31 March 1955) is an Australian musician, best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, songwriter, and only remaining original member of the hard rock band AC/DC. He is known for his energetic performances, schoolbo ...
– lead guitar
*
Malcolm Young
Malcolm Mitchell Young (6 January 1953 – 18 November 2017) was an Australian musician who was the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter of AC/DC. Except for a brief absence in 1988, he was with the band from its beginn ...
– rhythm guitar, backing vocals
*
Cliff Williams
Clifford Williams (born 14 December 1949) is an English musician, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. He started his professional music career in 1967 and had previously been in the English g ...
– bass guitar, backing vocals
*
Phil Rudd
Phillip Hugh Norman Rudd (born Phillip Hugh Norman Witschke Rudzevecius, 19 May 1954) is an Australian drummer, best known as the drummer of AC/DC across three stints. On the 1977 departure of bass guitarist Mark Evans from AC/DC, Rudd became ...
– drums
Production
*
Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Robert John "Mutt" Lange (born 11 November 1948) is a South African record producer and songwriter, mainly known for his work in rock music as well as his previous marriage to Canadian singer Shania Twain, for whom he wrote and produced several ...
–
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
*
Tony Platt
Tony Platt is an English sound engineer and record producer, best known for his work with a diverse mix of artists, including, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Bob Marley, Iron Maiden, Shy, Buddy Guy, Foreigner, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sparks, Jaz ...
–
assistant engineering
*Benji Armbrister – assistant engineering
*Jack Newber – assistant engineering
*Brad Samuelsohn –
mixing
*
Bob Ludwig
Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...
–
mastering (original LP)
*Barry Diament – mastering (original CD releases)
*
Ted Jensen
Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''.
Biography
Ted ...
– remastering (EMI/Atco reissue)
*
George Marino
George Marino (April 15, 1947 – June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s.
Biography
Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He at ...
– remastering (Epic reissue)
*Bob Defrin –
art direction
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...
*Robert Ellis –
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
See also
*
List of best-selling albums
This is a list of the world's best-selling albums of recorded music. To appear on the list, the figure must have been published by a reliable source and the album must have sold at least 20 million copies. This list can contain any types of al ...
*
List of best-selling albums in Australia
This is a list of best-selling albums in Australia that have been certified by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Since the 1970s, ARIA certified an album platinum for a shipment of 50,000 copies across Australia. In 1983, the ...
*
List of best-selling albums in France
This is a list of the best-selling albums in France that have been certified by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique
The National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing (french: Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique; SNEP) ...
*
List of best-selling albums in the United States
This is a list of the best-selling albums in the United States based on RIAA certification and Nielsen SoundScan sales tracking. The criteria are that the album must have been published (including self-publishing by the artist), and the album mus ...
*
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
The following diamond-certified albums in Canada have sold at least one million units (individual CDs, tapes or LPs) as determined by Canadian Recording Industry Association, the national music recording sales certification agency.
The first ...
*
List of number-one albums in Australia during the 1980s
The following lists the number one albums on the Australian Albums Chart, during the 1980s.
The source for this decade is the Kent Music Report up until 20 June 1988, whereafter the source is the ARIA Charts.
1980
1981
1982
1983
198 ...
*
List of Top 25 albums for 1980 in Australia
*
List of Canadian number-one albums of 1981
*
List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 1980s
The UK Albums Chart is a weekly record chart based on album sales from Sunday to Saturday in the United Kingdom; during the 1980s, a total of 184 albums reached number one.
Number ones
By artist
Ten artists spent 10 weeks or more at num ...
References
Bibliography
*
* .
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
1980 albums
AC/DC albums
Albert Productions albums
Albums produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Albums recorded at Electric Lady Studios
Atlantic Records albums
Albums in memory of deceased persons