AC/DC launches video series celebrating upcoming 40th anniversary of the ‘Back in Black’ album

Sony LegacyAC/DC‘s hugely successful Back in Black album celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, and to mark the milestone, the Australian rockers have launched a new series of YouTube videos looking at the making of the record.

The first episode features archival interviews with AC/DC guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young and frontman Brian Johnson discussing how the band’s classic hit “You Shook Me All Night Long” came together.

The clip starts with Angus pointing out that the first parts of the song he and his brother Malcolm came up with musically were the jangly intro and the riff that appears in the chorus.

Then, in footage from a separate interview, Johnson recalls that when he went into the studio to sing the lyrics he’d written to the song, producer “Mutt” Lange told him he thought that he was trying to fit too many words into each line and asked him to sing it differently.

The video then cuts to Malcolm showing how Lange wanted the tune sung. Cut back to Johnson, who remembers with a laugh that when Malcolm heard what he was doing, he stopped and declared, “What the f*** is this?!” and told him the original way he was singing it was much better.

Released on July 25, 1980, Back in Black was AC/DC’s first album following the 1979 death of singer Bon Scott, and its first to feature Johnson. After peaking at #4 on the Billboard 200, it has gone on to become the fourth most successful album in U.S. history, selling more than 25 million copies.

As for “You Shook Me All Night Long,” it reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Meanwhile, a line of new 40th anniversary Back in Black merch is available now at AC/DC’s online store.

By Matt Friedlander
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