Back in Black

Scott died in London on 19 February 1980, just as the band were about to begin the follow-up to Highway to Hell. His family had him laid to rest in Fremantle, Western Australia. The band considered breaking up, but friends and Scott's family persuaded them to carry on. After the funeral on 1 March they began auditioning, and at Lange's suggestion they brought in Brian Johnson, who had sung with Geordie. On 29 March Malcolm Young phoned Johnson to offer him the job.

The album was written by Johnson and the Young brothers. Three weeks of rehearsal in London were cut to one when a slot opened at Compass Point Studios in Nassau. No UK studios were free, and the Bahamas offered a tax advantage. Johnson remembered the studio as small concrete cells with a bed and a chair. Tropical storms disrupted the electricity, and some of the band's gear was held up by customs.

Recording

Lange demanded perfection from Johnson, who was recording with the band for the first time and felt the pressure. Johnson said Lange would not even let a breath fall in the wrong place. Engineer Tony Platt found that the rooms at Compass Point did not suit the band's very dry, compact sound. Angus's guitar sound used a Schaffer-Vega diversity system, a wireless device. During one take a crab shuffled across the wooden floor and interrupted it.

Near the end the band asked their manager Ian Jeffery to find a bell. Church bells that Platt recorded were spoiled by birds flying off at each peal, so a foundry made a bell, which turned out perfectly tuned. It was recorded with Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio, and the tolling bell opens Hells Bells. The album was mixed at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Atlantic disliked the all-black cover but accepted it on condition that the AC/DC logo carry a grey outline.

Who wrote the words

The credits read Young, Young and Johnson. Some people who knew Scott have said he wrote lyrics that went into the album, and Angus gave differing answers across the years. In his 2022 autobiography The Lives of Brian, Johnson denied that Scott wrote any of the lyrics. He said he wrote them himself, working from nothing more than a riff and a title.

Reception

It entered the British chart at number one, reached number four in the United States and was number one in Australia in March 1981. After its release Highway to Hell, If You Want Blood You've Got It and Let There Be Rock all re-entered the British charts, which made AC/DC the first band since the Beatles to have four albums in the UK top 100 at once. Atlantic then released Dirty Deeds in the United States, where it reached number three in May 1981. The album has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide and is certified 27x Platinum in the United States.

David Fricke of Rolling Stone called it the apex of heavy-metal art in 1980. Smash Hits gave it 3 out of 10. In The Guardian in 2011, Kitty Empire called it a "preposterous, drongoid record" and also named it her favorite album, the soundtrack of her adolescence. Rolling Stone placed it at number 73 on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums, and it appears in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.