Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Recording began in December 1975 at Albert Studios with Harry Vanda and George Young producing. It was the first AC/DC album made entirely with one line-up: Scott, Angus and Malcolm Young, bassist Mark Evans and drummer Phil Rudd. The title is an homage to the cartoon Beany and Cecil, in which the character Dishonest John carried a business card that read "Dirty deeds done dirt cheap".

Atlantic's American staff told Phil Carson, who had signed the band, that the album did not make it and that they were dropping the band. Carson showed Atlantic executive Nesuhi Ertegun the sales figures for High Voltage, and Carson re-signed the band. The international edition on Atlantic, released on 17 December 1976, replaced Jailbreak and R.I.P. (Rock in Peace) with Rocker and Love at First Feel. It was not released in the United States until March 1981, after the success of Back in Black, and it went straight to number three. Carson later told the biographer Jesse Fink that the US release was one of the most crass decisions ever made by a record-company executive.

Songs

Ride On is a slow blues, atypical for the band. The French band Trust covered it on their 1979 debut, and Scott jammed it with Trust at Scorpio Sound Studios in London on 13 February 1980, six days before his death. Scott told RAM in 1976 that Ride On was about a guy who gets pushed around by women. Ain't No Fun (Waiting 'Round to Be a Millionaire) runs 7:31 on the Australian edition and was shortened for the international release. In 2020 Michael Hann of The Guardian ranked Ride On at number 11 and Jailbreak at number 30 among the band's 40 greatest songs.

The album is certified 6x Platinum in both Australia and the United States.