Regarded by many as the greatest album of all time, it holds the record as the highest-selling album for a group – somewhere north of 50 million units. Impressive by any measure.
As if that is not enough, there is more. Yes, we have a copy of Back in Black floating around, and play it regularly. But our connection with the band goes deeper. For many years, the headquarters of their recording company, Alberts, was line of sight from one of the earlier versions of our very own Intergalactic Command Centre. Sadly, the Alberts site is now a block of apartments, but happily, the developers saw fit to name it appropriately as “Muse“, and it’s a top-shelf piece of work, befitting the calibre of the legendary musical talent to have passed through over the years.
But the pièce de résistance? The then revolutionary music video shot for “It’s a Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)”. Featuring the band playing the tune on the back of a truck, driving down one of Melbourne’s main streets, it was filmed in February 1976, with the band accompanied on the bagpipes by members of the Rats of Tobruk Pipe band. Filmed for ABC’s Countdown, it was revolutionary and a major talking point at the time. Since then, it has been posted many times on YouTube, with one version alone clocking up 33 million hits. Must be the truck, right?
It was the start of taking AC/DC’s branding to the next level and garnered plenty of media attention. We think it set them on the road to success, and rock and roll greatness.
AC/DC, Back in Black, we salute you.
