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

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

band

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

, 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 Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was an Australian singer who was the second lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980. In the July 2004 issue of ''Classic Rock (m ...

, 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 rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and a founding member of the hard rock band AC/DC. Except for a brief absence in 1988, he was a member of AC ...

& Angus Young; co-producer). Originally, AC/DC's first bassist, Larry Van Kriedt, 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''. 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 an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Video

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

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

, 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 primarily defined by the flamboyant clothing, makeup, and hairstyles of its musicians, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists d ...

visual image with satins and brightly coloured costumes more reminiscent of T. Rex 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 * Angus Young – lead guitar *

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

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

– 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 Glam rock songs