Tag: Back In Black

AC/DC – You Shook Me All Night Long

The album Back In Black was very popular. I think it was a requirement for every teenage boy to own a copy or two all over the world.

The rock band I was in my Sophomore year in high school played this song in our first gig in the school theater. We had the only singer around who could actually sing it. The riff to the song is one of the more memorable ones in rock.

This was the first AC/DC single and album featuring new lead singer Brian Johnson. He replaced Bon Scott, who died February 19, 1980 after a drinking binge. Scott’s father made it clear to the band that they should find a new singer and keep going.

The album peaked at #4 in the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, #24 in New Zealand, and #1 in the UK in 1980.

You Shook Me All Night Long peaked at #35 in the Billboard 100 and #38 in the UK in 1980.

Brian Johnson said that the inspiration for this song came from seeing images of American girls while recording in the Bahamas for the album.

From Songfacts

Brian Johnson came up with the line “She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean” when he realized that cars and women were very much alike – they go fast, let you down, but then make you happy again when you see the new model. AC/DC has never been known for deep, meaningful lyrics.

Angus and Malcolm Young have received lots of praise for their guitar work on this track. The song has made many lists of top guitar solos in rock. 

Brian Johnson told UK’s Absolute Radio about the inspiration behind the song. “The boys had a title,” he recalled. “Malcolm and Angus [Young] said, ‘Listen, we’ve got this song. It’s called ‘Shook Me All Night Long.’ That’s what we want the song to be called.’ And if you listen to the chords, [the chorus] just fell into place so I can’t claim any credit on that thing.”

“It was as quick as it had to be, which was that night. I guess I had to try and impress somebody,” he continued. “It was just a thing that came at the time, and I still think it’s one of the greatest rock and roll riffs I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Some copies of the single were pressed incorrectly – they play a song called “Shake A Leg” and are considered collector’s items.

MTV wasn’t on the air when this song was released, but in Australia and England, there were some TV shows that would show videos, so bands popular in those countries would sometimes make them. AC/DC made one for this song, which was directed by David Mallet, who also did some of Blondie’s videos. He based the video on the comic strip character Andy Capp, which was very popular in England. Brian Johnson took on the drunkard persona of the character, and we see him come home to a room of scantily clad women, one of which is riding a mechanical bull. Mallet also directed their video for “Thunderstruck.”

The album has sold over 40 million copies worldwide. 

AC/DC played this when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, who inducted them, sang on it with them.

This is a very popular song at strip clubs (or so we’re told…). The lyrics and groove go very well with pole dancing.

This plays over the end credits of the movie A Knight’s Tale. >>

Shania Twain sang this on her Up! Close And Personal TV special (also released as a DVD). Her then-husband, Mutt Lange, produced Back In Black. 

In 2002 Celine Dion covered this song together with Anastacia at a VH1 Divas Las Vegas concert. The French-Canadian singer came on stage playing air-guitar and proceeded to belt out this track. Though never released as a single, some radio stations played her version of this classic heavy metal track. In a 2008 poll conducted by a panel of experts in the Total Guitar magazine her rendition was awarded the dubious honor of worst cover song of all time. Total Guitar editor Stephen Lawson commented “Celine Dion covering AC/DC is sacrilege.” Two more covers by pop acts of legendary tunes by rock acts followed Dion in the survey. Sugababes and Girls Aloud 2007 version of Aerosmith and Run DMC’s “Walk This Way” came second on the list and Westlife’s 1999 version of “More Than Words” by Extreme, a track on their self-titled debut album, came third.

Johnson told USA Weekend that this song is for him the highlight of the band’s catalog because: “It was the first song I wrote with the guys, and it has a special groovy beat that won’t let you go. It has such a special place in my heart, and I still love to sing it onstage. To me, it might be one of the best rock songs ever written – if I do say so myself.”

You Shook Me All Night Long

She was a fast machine
She kept her motor clean
She was the best damn woman I had ever seen
She had the sightless eyes
Telling me no lies
Knockin’ me out with those American thighs
Taking more than her share
Had me fighting for air
She told me to come but I was already there
‘Cause the walls start shaking
The earth was quaking
My mind was aching
And we were making it and you

Shook me all night long
Yeah you shook me all night long

Working double time
On the seduction line
She was one of a kind, she’s just mine all mine
Wanted no applause
Just another course
Made a meal out of me and came back for more
Had to cool me down
To take another round
Now I’m back in the ring to take another swing
‘Cause the walls were shaking
The earth was quaking
My mind was aching
And we were making it and you

Shook me all night long
Yeah you shook me all night long

And knocked me out and then you
Shook me all night long
You had me shakin’ and you
Shook me all night long
Yeah you shook me
Well you took me

You really took me and you
Shook me all night long
Oh you
Shook me all night long
Yeah, yeah, you
Shook me all night long
You really took me and you
Yeah you shook me, yeah you shook me
All night long

AC/DC – Back In Black

GOOD MORNING everyone. Play this song really LOUD and get on with your day!

The riff of this song is outstanding. It’s a riff that like Louie Louie and Wild Thing is learned by beginning guitar players.

This was released five months after lead singer Bon Scott died. ACDC asked Nobby Holder (lead singer of Slade) to join after Scott had died. Nobby has said that his loyalty was to Slade and turned them down. His voice really would have fit nicely.

The song is a tribute to Scott, and the lyrics, “Forget the hearse ’cause I never die” imply that he will live on forever through his music. With Brian Johnson on lead vocals, the Back In Black album proved that AC/DC could indeed carry on without Scott.

The song peaked at #37 in the Billboard 100 in 1981. The song was written by Brian Johnson, Angus Young, and Malcolm Young

 

From Songfacts

Brian Johnson made quite a statement with this song, quickly endearing himself to AC/DC fans and leaving little doubt that the band made the right pick to replace Bon Scott. Johnson had been in a group called Geordie, which Scott saw in 1973. After that show, Scott talked up the Geordie lead singer to his bandmates, and in 1980 when they were looking for a replacement, AC/DC’s producer Mutt Lange suggested him. At the time, Johnson was working as a windshield fitter and had recently reunited Geordie.

The band got the idea for the title before writing any of the song, although Malcolm Young had the main guitar riff for years and used to play it frequently as a warm-up tune. After Bon Scott’s death, Angus Young decided that their first album without him should be called Back In Black in tribute, and they wrote this song around that phrase. 

The album had a black cover with the band’s logo on it, which was a tribute to Bon Scott. They didn’t want it to feel mournful, however, and needed a title track that captured the essence of their fallen friend. They were certainly not going to do a ballad, so it fell on Brian Johnson to write a lyric that would rock, but also celebrate Scott without being morbid or literal.

Johnson says he wrote “Whatever came into my head,” which at the time he thought was nonsense. To the contrary, lines about abusing his nine lives and beating the rap summed up Scott perfectly, and his new bandmates loved it.

Bon Scott had several lyrical ideas for the album, but those were abandoned by the band in favor of new lyrics by Brian, Malcolm and Angus. Former AC/DC manager Ian Jeffrey claims to still have a folder that contains lyrics of 15 songs written for Back In Black by Bon, but Angus insists that all of Bon’s notebooks were given to his family.

This song was recorded in The Bahamas and produced in New York by Mutt Lange. Back In Black was one of the first big albums Lange produced. He went on to work with Def Leppard, Celine Dion, and Shania Twain (who he married in 1993). In the late-’70s, he produced two albums for the band Clover, which featured Huey Lewis on harmonica and Alex Call on lead vocals. Call explains Lange’s production style:

“Mutt is a real studio rat. He is Mr. Endurance in the studio. When we were making the records with him, he’d start working at 10:30, 11 in the morning and go until 3 at night, night after night. He is one of the guys that really developed that whole multi-multi-multi track recording. We’d do 8 tracks of background vocals going, “Oooooh” and bounce those down to one track and then do another 8, he was doing a lot of that. A lot of the things you hear on Def Leppard and that kind of stuff, he was developing that when he worked with us. We were the last record he did that wasn’t enormous, and that’s not his fault, he did a really good job with us. Mutt is famous for working long hours. The story I heard about one of the Shania sessions, he had Rob Hajakos, who’s one of the famous fiddle session men down here (Nashville). Rob was playing violin parts for like seven or eight hours and finally he said, ‘Can I take a break,’ and Mutt says, ‘What do you mean take a break?’ Rob goes, ‘Have you ever held one of these for eight hours under your chin?’ Mutt really loves to record, he loves music and he’s a real perfectionist and an innovator. An unbelievable commercial hook writer.” (Check out our full interview with Alex Call.)

This was the title track to AC/DC’s most popular album. It has sold over 19 million copies in the US, the 6th highest ever. Worldwide, it has sold over 40 million.

The Beastie Boys sampled this on their 1985 single “Rock Hard,” a single released in 1985 on Def Jam Records. They sampled it without AC/DC’s permission, so AC/DC refused to allow the Beastie Boys to include the song on their 1999 compilation album Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science. >>

A remastered version is included on the 1997 Bon Scott tribute album, Bonfire.

The Atlanta Falcons football team used this as their theme song for a while. The Falcons also went through an MC Hammer phase, when they used “2 Legit 2 Quit” and let the rapper roam their sidelines.

This plays in the opening scene of the 2008 film Iron Man, providing an agressive intro to the Marvel Comic Universe movies. Other films to use the song include:

Grudge Match (2013)
The Muppets (2011)
Megamind (2010)
The Karate Kid (2010)
Brüno (2009)
School of Rock (2003)

It was also used on episodes of

The Sopranos (“Cold Stones” – 2006) and Family Guy (“Peter Problems” – 2014).

This was used as the backing track to a bootleg version of Eminem’s 1999 hit “My Name Is” The song fits surprisingly well under Eminem’s rap.

Missy Elliott did a remix of this song called “Get Your Freak On (AC/DC remix)” that is played in the beginning of the movie The Rundown, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Sean William Scott.

The Appalachian State Mountaineers football team use this song before and during their games, where it is a crowd favorite. The team colors are gold and black. >>

This features in a commercial for the 2015 Chevy Colorado pickup truck, where a mundane guy in a generic sedan is soundtracked with “Rainy Days And Mondays,” which becomes “Back In Black” when a much more exciting fellow comes into the shot and drives off in his black Colorado.

Kurt Cobain was given his first guitar for his 14th birthday, and this was the first song that he learned to play.

Back In Black

Back in black
I hit the sack
I’ve been too long I’m glad to be back
Yes, I’m let loose
From the noose
That’s kept me hanging about
I’ve been looking at the sky
‘Cause it’s gettin’ me high
Forget the hearse ’cause I never die
I got nine lives
Cat’s eyes
Abusin’ every one of them and running wild

‘Cause I’m back
Yes, I’m back
Well, I’m back
Yes, I’m back
Well, I’m back, back
Well, I’m back in black
Yes, I’m back in black

Back in the back
Of a Cadillac
Number one with a bullet, I’m a power pack
Yes, I’m in a bang
With a gang
They’ve got to catch me if they want me to hang
‘Cause I’m back on the track
And I’m beatin’ the flack
Nobody’s gonna get me on another rap
So look at me now
I’m just makin’ my play
Don’t try to push your luck, just get out of my way

‘Cause I’m back
Yes, I’m back
Well, I’m back
Yes, I’m back
Well, I’m back, back
Well, I’m back in black
Yes, I’m back in black

Well, I’m back, yes I’m back
Well, I’m back, yes I’m back
Well, I’m back, back
Well I’m back in black
Yes I’m back in black

Ho yeah
Oh yeah
Yes I am
Oh yeah, yeah oh yeah
Back in now
Well I’m back, I’m back
Back, (I’m back)
Back, (I’m back)
Back, (I’m back)
Back, (I’m back)
Back
Back in black
Yes I’m back in black
Out of the sight