"Can I Sit Next to You, Girl" is the debut single by 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 ha ...

band

AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal, but the band calls it ...

, issued on 22 July 1974. On 26 August 1974, the song peaked at number 50 in Australia. This version has lead vocals performed by Dave Evans prior to his being replaced by Bon Scott, as well as drums by ex-Masters Apprentices member Colin Burgess, and bass guitar by ex-The Easybeats member George Young (older brother of band cofounders

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 ...

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 ...

; co-producer). Originally, AC/DC's first bassist,

Larry Van Kriedt Larry Van Kriedt (born July 4, 1954) is an American-born Australian jazz musician. He is best known for being the original bassist for the rock band AC/DC around November 1973, joining Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar), Angus Young (lead guitar), D ...

, played the bass parts, but George recorded his own over them later. In 1975, after Scott joined, the group re-arranged and re-recorded the song as the seventh track on their Australia-only album '' T.N.T.'', released in December 1975, and as the sixth track on the international version of ''High Voltage'', released in May 1976. The title of this version of the song removed the comma, becoming "Can I Sit Next To You Girl".

Recordings

Written by Malcolm and Angus Young, it was AC/DC's first original song. The Evans version was released as a single in Australia, and the band performed the song with Evans on the TV show ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and ev ...

''. The musical arrangement of Evans' version is different from Scott's and it has never been officially released outside Australia (though it is now widely available on the internet, on sites like

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

Video

The song's performance on ''The Last Picture Show'' was made into a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

, released only in Australia in 1974. Peter Clack (drums) and Rob Bailey (bass) appeared in the video, even though they were not featured on the recording. While Angus sports his soon-to-be-iconic schoolboy uniform in the video, the rest of the band present a

Glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...

visual image with satins and brightly coloured costumes more reminiscent of

T-Rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

than of later heavy rock imagery.The 1974 video of ''Can I Sit Next To You'' complete with Glam rock costumes''
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Personnel

"Can I Sit Next to You, Girl" (1974)

* Dave Evans – lead vocals *

– guitar *

– guitar * George Young – bass guitar, production * Colin Burgess – drums

"Can I Sit Next to You Girl" (1975)

* Bon Scott – lead vocals *Angus Young – lead guitar *Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar * Mark Evans – bass guitar * Phil Rudd – drums

Charts

References

External links

Music Legends Interview with Dave Evans
{{DEFAULTSORT:Can I Sit Next To You Girl 1974 songs 1974 debut singles AC/DC songs Songs written by Angus Young Songs written by Malcolm Young Song recordings produced by Harry Vanda Song recordings produced by George Young (rock musician) Albert Productions singles