Hells Bells

It is the first track on Back in Black and the album's second single, released on 31 October 1980. It begins with the slow tolling of a 2,000-pound bronze bell made by John Taylor and Company in Loughborough. Tony Platt recorded the bell inside the foundry using Ronnie Lane's mobile studio, after tracking at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas had finished. Church bells recorded earlier had been ruined by birds flying away at each peal.

Johnson's opening lines about rolling thunder and pouring rain, and a hurricane, referred to the tropical storms during the sessions in the Bahamas. He said in his 2022 autobiography that he wrote the lyrics with only a riff and a title to work from. Michael Hann of The Guardian described the opening in 2020: the bell, then a desolate guitar line, then a simple drumbeat before the rest of the band come in. The main riff is revealed after 80 seconds, and Johnson enters nearly a minute and a half in. Hann ranked it number six on his list of the 40 greatest AC/DC songs.

It appears on Who Made Who and on both versions of AC/DC Live (1992). Baseball closer Trevor Hoffman used it as his entrance music at home games from 1998 to 2010, and the New Jersey Devils play it as the players come out onto the ice. Of the 2,183 logged setlists that list songs, 1,366 include it, the earliest being a show at Palais des Expositions in Namur on 29 June 1980.