100 Best Albums
- JUL 25, 1980
- 10 Songs
- The Razors Edge · 1990
- Back In Black · 1980
- Back In Black · 1980
- Highway to Hell · 1979
- Back In Black · 1980
- High Voltage · 1975
- Back In Black · 1980
- Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap · 1976
- For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) · 1981
- High Voltage · 1975
Essential Albums
- 100 Best Albums "Hells Bells" sets a mournful tone with its slow, ominous build, but once Johnson leans into the mic, the band is back in business. From there on out, it's a masterful metal adventure that features some of the heaviest and most fist-pumping music of their career, including "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" and the tune that's probably inspired more late-night sing-alongs than any other, "You Shook Me All Night Long."
- AC/DC had been creating album after album of pulverizing rock 'n' roll for much of the '70s when they released Highway to Hell. If those albums were the sound of them pillaging the club scene, this was where they stormed the gates of the arena. A new producer, Robert "Mutt" Lange, was brought on board to help clean up some of the grime on those riffs, shape the new tunes into more compact forms, and create choruses that hit even harder. The result? "Highway to Hell," "Girls Got Rhythm," "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)." These are songs that defined the way heavy metal and hard rock would be played for decades to come. This multi-platinum album ensured that the name AC/DC would be scrawled on every teenager's desk for the foreseeable future.
- If AC/DC’s debut album sounded like the work of a band that arrived fully formed, it may be because this version wasn’t technically a debut. Released internationally in 1976, it’s a cherry-picked amalgam of their first two Australia-only releases, High Voltage and TNT, which had hit local stores the year prior. “She’s Got Balls” and “Little Lover” (a song vocalist Bon Scott reportedly wrote for diminutive guitarist Angus Young) were the only two tracks that made the cut from the original High Voltage; it was TNT where the band landed on the AC/DC sound. You know the one: Malcolm Young’s guitar acting as a chugging metronome to his younger brother Angus’ wild-eyed lead. This international version was released in anticipation of the band’s first visit to the UK, and in acknowledgment of the success they had enjoyed on home turf. It was produced by former Easybeats members George Young—Angus and Malcolm’s older brother—and Harry Vanda. The duo were instrumental in capturing the raw, sweaty intensity of AC/DC’s live show in the studio and refining their mastery of groove and razor sharp blues-influenced rock’n’roll (witness the growling “T.N.T.”). Scott is at his lascivious best in the raunchy boogie of “She’s Got Balls,” an ode to his former wife Irene that boasts the lyrics “She’s got balls, my lady/Likes to crawl, my lady/Hands and knees all around the floor,” while the bluesy “The Jack” is a cheeky extended metaphor for contracting STIs. “Rock ’N’ Roll Singer,” meanwhile, outlines the blueprint for Scott’s life: “I want to be a star/I can see my name in lights, and I can see the queue/I got the devil in my blood, tellin’ me what to do.” The aptly-titled “Live Wire” served as the band’s set opener for many years, while “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ’N’ Roll)” not only evokes the bumpy road bands must travel to succeed, but manages the rare feat of incorporating bagpipes into a rock’n’roll song. Once High Voltage was unleashed on the world, AC/DC was well and truly on its way.
- 2014
- 1995
Artist Playlists
- The ultimate rock songs from the ultimate rock 'n' roll band.
- AC/DC never needed fancy videos to gloss up their no-frills riffs.
- Their DNA is a veritable riff fest of blues, glam, and rock 'n' roll.
- Old-school R&B and rockabilly found its way into their hard rock sound.
- Bluesy hard rockers and swaggering punk-metal icons.
Singles & EPs
Compilations
More To Hear
- The story behind an epic rock rebound from tragedy.
- Celebrating the anniversary of AC/DC's seventh album.
- An epic rock 'n roll-call of some of AC/DC's biggest hits.
- Billie Eilish on "Therefore I Am" plus Lil Nas X and AC/DC.
- Rock legends have a conversation about their 17th studio album.
- The band on "Realize," plus the team recaps current events.
- The comic teams up with Josh to spin AC/DC and Iggy Pop.
More To See
- 41:04
About AC/DC
In a conversation with Apple Music in 2020, Angus Young, the guitarist and principal songwriter in AC/DC, mused on what he thought made the band tick. After all, by that point, they’d been around for more than 45 years, and had spent those years making more or less the same song. Where other 1970s hard rock bands digressed into concept albums and orchestral suites in tortured efforts to prove how smart they were, AC/DC treated their records the way a cobbler might treat a shoe, or a watchmaker a watch: as a humble craft to be refined through repetition, and always geared toward the utility of the final product. Young said that his older brother George, who had produced their first several albums, stressed the importance of making your point clear and never doing more than you need to. Anyone could be complex—just put more junk into the pot. “The real art,” Young said, “is making the complex simple.” Formed in Sydney, Australia, in 1973, the band presented a rebuttal to the bloat of art and progressive rock, but also restored the music to its roots in Little Richard, blues, and a kind of pre-Beatles notion that that rock music was primarily meant to entertain. Albums such as 1979’s Highway to Hell and 1980’s Back in Black may have helped create heavy metal, but they also shared the minimalist attitude of punk: The songs were short, the chords simple, the spirit clear and uncompromising. They survived not only the death of their first real singer (Bon Scott) and, later, of Angus’ brother, co-founder and co-writer Malcolm, but the hearing damage of Scott’s replacement, Brian Johnson. “You can’t call an album Rock or Bust and then go bust,” Young joked about the band’s 2014 record. And so they remained: proud, primitive, electric.
- ORIGIN
- Sydney, Australia
- FORMED
- November 1973
- GENRE
- Hard Rock