"Hard as a Rock" is a song and a single by the Australian
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
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 features as the first track on their album, ''
Ballbreaker
''Ballbreaker'' is the thirteenth studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It was released in 1995 and was re-released in 2005 as part of the ''AC/DC Remasters'' series.
Background
''Ballbreaker'' marked the return of drummer Phil R ...
'', released in 1995. It became their second No. 1 song on the Album Rock Tracks chart, following 1993's "
Big Gun
"Big Gun" is a song by Australian rock band AC/DC. It was released as a single in May 1993 from the soundtrack to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie ''Last Action Hero'', as well as during reruns of '' The Savage Nation'' talk show as bumper music ...
". Live performances are also included on three of AC/DC's live concert DVDs, ''
No Bull
''No Bull'' is a live video released by AC/DC in November 1996, filmed on Super 16mm at Madrid's Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas on 10 July 1996 during the Ballbreaker world tour. It was directed by David Mallet, produced by Rocky Oldham, mixed b ...
Stiff Upper Lip
A person who is said to have a stiff upper lip displays Courage, fortitude and stoicism in the face of adversity, or exercises great self control, self-restraint in the expression of emotion.Stiff Upper Lip Live'' and '' Live at the Circus Krone'', which is featured in the Deluxe Edition of the 2009 boxset '' Backtracks''. A live version recorded during the band's Stiff Upper Lip World Tour in 2001 at the
Stade de France
The Stade de France (, ) is the national stadium of France, located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the sixth-largest stadium in Europe. The stadium is used by the France national foot ...
in Paris appears on the 2007 '' Plug Me In'' three-disc DVD. It is also featured on the 2012 film ''
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
The music video to this song was directed by David Mallet, and was set at the
Bray Studios
Bray Productions was a pioneering American animation studio that produced several popular cartoons during the years of World War I and the early interwar era, becoming a springboard for several key animators of the 20th century, including the ...
in
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
,
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
. Many fans gathered to be a part of this video, and can be seen in front of the stage, and also seen behind the bars which surrounds the stage the band plays on. Also, in the video, lead guitarist
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 ...
is seen playing his
Gibson SG
The Gibson SG is a solid-body electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1961 as the Gibson Les Paul SG. It remains in production today in many variations of the initial design. The SG (where "SG" refers to Solid-Body Guitar) Standard is Gib ...
on a wrecking ball, which destroys a building. Angus Young had stated in the documentary that he had a fear of heights when doing this before. The video can be seen on the 2000
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
version of ''
No Bull
''No Bull'' is a live video released by AC/DC in November 1996, filmed on Super 16mm at Madrid's Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas on 10 July 1996 during the Ballbreaker world tour. It was directed by David Mallet, produced by Rocky Oldham, mixed b ...
'' (which also includes the documentary on how the video was made) and the ''Backtracks'' box set.
Track listings
;CD single
# "Hard as a Rock" – 4:30
# "Caught with Your Pants Down" – 4:14
;7-inch single
# "Hard as a Rock" (LP version) – 4:30
# "Caught with Your Pants Down" (LP version) – 4:14
Personnel
*
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 ...