This one and Highway to Hell are two of my favorite AC/DC songs. The Rolling Stones could have written this song. Great riff and great singing by Bon Scott. The song was written by Bon Scott and Malcolm and Angus Young. I’m going to turn 12 year…this song just plain out rocks!
Years ago I would never pay the Bon Scott era much attention…now it’s rapidly becoming my favorite of the band. That is not a knock on Brian Johnson. Both have one of a kind voices but I like the writing in the Bon era a lot.
This was on their 1979 Highway To Hell album. It was their largest album to this point. It setup their next album Back in Black to be huge.
Highway To Hell was the first AC/DC album produced by Mutt Lange, who worked the band very hard and tried new techniques that made the band’s sound more appealing to the masses without softening their sound. He helped Bon Scott with sharpening his vocals along with Angus Young’s solos.
Lange was an up-and-coming producer at the time, but he would soon become a superstar, launching into the stratosphere with AC/DC’s next album, Back In Black.
Highway to Hell peaked at #17 in the Billboard 100, #40 in Canada, and #8 in the UK in 1979.
The band also would launch into superstar status with their next album but sadly Bon Scott wasn’t part of it. He would die alone in a car Febrary 19, 1980. The official cause was listed on the death certificate as “acute alcohol poisoning” and classified as “death by misadventure.”
His grave site has become a cultural landmark; more than 28 years after Scott’s death, the National Trust of Australia declared his grave important enough to be included on the list of classified heritage places.[33][37] It is reportedly the most visited grave in Australia.
From Songfacts
This lascivious rocker is one of the last tunes written by lead singer Bon Scott, who died six months after the album was released. It’s a classic Bon Scott lyric, as he finds myriad ways of explaining how his woman satisfies him, all while keeping the title squeaky clean and radio-friendly. It was released as a single in the UK and other parts of Europe, but didn’t chart. In America, the song did very well on stations with the Album Oriented Rock (AOR) format.
Note that there is no apostrophe in the title, which implies multiple girls having rhythm. The lyric suggests that an apostrophe is necessary, as Scott is singing about one specific girl, but it’s not likely that anyone challenged his grammar.
Girls Got Rhythm
I’ve been around the world
I’ve seen a million girls
Ain’t one of them got
What my lady she’s got
She’s stealin’ the spotlight
Knocks me off my feet
She’s enough to start a landslide
Just a walkin’ down the street
Wearing dresses so tight
And looking dynamite
Enough to blow me out
No doubt about it can’t live without it
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm)
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm)
She’s got the backseat rhythm (backseat rhythm)
The girl’s got rhythm
She’s like a lethal brand
Too much for any man
She gives me first degree
She really satisfies me
Love me till I’m legless
Aching and sore
Enough to stop a freight train
Or start the Third World War
You know I’m losin’ sleep
I’m in too deep
Like a body needs blood
No doubt about it, can’t live without it
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm)
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm)
She’s got the backseat rhythm (backseat rhythm)
The girl’s got rhythm
You know she moves like sin
And when she lets me in
It’s like liquid love
No doubt about it, can’t live without it
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm)
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm)
She’s got the backseat rhythm (backseat rhythm)
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm)
You know she really got the rhythm (girl’s got rhythm)
She’s got the backseat rhythm (backseat rhythm)
Rock ‘n’ roll rhythm (rock n roll rhythm)
The girl’s got rhythm
I hardly know anything about AC/DC and if it wasn’t for you and Ricky I would know a lot less.
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This one was a favorite of mine when I was a teen and must admit, it still sounds fairly decent.
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Its just a great rock track…in 20 years it will be good. Mutt Lange got a great sound out of them on this and the next two albums.
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I’d forgotten that Mutt had worked on that one… he did have the magic touch.
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Great headbanging song. I love Bon’s voice, one of a kind.
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His voice is really interesting. I’m reading a book about him right now…He wasn’t really what I thought he would be.
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What did you think he’d be and what surprises you about who he is?
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Very kind person and well read. Many of the stories about him are pretty rough.
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Interesting that TNT was on the flip side of this 45. What a great track Girls Got Rhythm is. Love Phils driving drums and that opening riff of Malcolm and Angus.
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They are about as tight as you can get. His voice also…just blows me away…it’s so different.
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True and by 79 Mutt Lange streamlined there sound a bit. Polished it up somewhat but in saying that AC/DC could still punch you out with the sound. Not too many bands can lay claim to that!
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I think I like the Bon Scott era better than Brian and I really like Brian so that says something. Great song.
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I agree with you on that. It’s not a knock against Brian either. I think the writing was better during that time.
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