AC/DC’s 10 best songs ever — Back in Black is not number 1 | Music | Entertainment

Fifty years after they turned from a band touring Australia in a van to one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, AC/DC are still selling out stadiums worldwide, with their Power Up tour currently rolling through South and North America. 

They are also responsible for the second biggest-selling album of all time, with 1980’s Back in Black only out-sold by Michael Jackson’s Thriller, as well as sound-tracking Hollywood blockbusters like Iron Man.

Every AC/DC fan will have a view on what should make a list of their 10 best songs ever. Here’s mine. There are some notable absences for this list, which is of course entirely subjective. Perhaps the biggest-hitters missing are Let There Be Rock, Hell’s Bells, Highway to Hell, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Hell Ain’t a Bad Place To Be, Shoot To Thrill and Jailbreak, though doubtless many will have several more songs they feel have been unjustly left out. 

But with a band as big as AC/DC, who are still going strong five decades after breaking on to the scene, choosing the best 10 songs was always going to be tough. 

The top 10 opens with one of the best songs on AC/DC’s biggest-selling album, Back in Black, which has global estimated sales of an astonishing 50 million copies. An instantly recognisable opening riff, eminently singable chorus and overtly sexual lyrics, some might say it’s over-played — but songs aren’t over-played because they’re bad, are they? 

A simple but magnificent riff and the repetitive chanting of “oi!” combine to make this an all-time rock classic song from the album of the same name, which also featured The Jack, It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock n Roll) and High Voltage.  

Riddled with double entendres, this song makes the list for its clever lyrics, comedy value and how drastically different it is from all other AC/DC songs. But far from being obscure, according to some fans “every Aussie born in the 60s/70s knows it”. Bon Scott’s delivery of the lines also shows how much more than a rock and roll frontman he was, delivering each line with wit, a nod and a wink.

Let There Be Rock is raw AC/DC at their flat-out best, showcasing their astonishing power. It is often the climax of their live shows, in which Angus Young writhes around on the floor while solo-ing for several minutes. In fact, when recording the solo in the studio, Angus’s amp caught fire.  

It’s a famous (but unfair) critical take on AC/DC that they have effectively written the same song over and over throughout their career. Wherever you stand on that debate (and even an arch critic would have to admit it’s one hell of a song) you can’t deny that Ride On stands apart. Disliked by some fans who believe it’s more a ballad than classic AC/DC, Ride On was released on the Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap album. The lyrics have a poignant edge to them when listened to after singer Bon Scott’s death in 1980: 

It’s another lonely evening
In another lonely town
But I ain’t too young to worry
And I ain’t too old to cry
When a woman gets me down
Got another empty bottle
Mmh and another empty bed
Ain’t too young to admit it
And I’m not too old to lie
I’m just another empty head.

This song is rarely spoken about in the same breath as the likes of Back in Black and Thunderstruck, but the fact that AC/DC choose to end their live shows with it tells you everything you need to know. Some fans say the For Those About to Rock album is better than Back in Black. The song builds up ominously for nearly a full minute before taking off and ending with the legendary cannon fire finish.  

Like all of AC/DC’s iconic songs, it starts with a killer guitar riff, which then grows into a thumping, melodic beat. But this song  just keeps building and building, ending with a crescendo of bagpipes. Viewed by many as the song that launched AC/DC on the road to superstardom, the lyrics detail the band’s early life trying to make it on the road in Australia, featuring the brilliantly simple:

Gettin’ robbed
Gettin’ stoned
Gettin’ beat up
Broken boned
Gettin’ had
Gettin’ took
I tell you folks
It’s harder than it looks.

It’s a song AC/DC never play live, reportedly out of respect to late singer Bon Scott, who died in 1980. 

Back in Black is the title track of AC/DC’s biggest-selling album. It was the band’s first album featuring Brian Johnson as singer following Bon Scott’s death from acute alcohol poisoning and is a huge statement of intent and enduring legacy given those circumstances. It’s an album packed with rock hits, with Back in Black itself arguably the pick of them all, that went on to become the second biggest-selling album in history. Remarkable.    

Another instantly recognisable intro riff that starts at 100mph and never slows down, Whole Lotta Rosie was released as the last track on the Let There Be Rock album. It is reportedly a song about a “groupie” Bon Scott met in Tasmania while looking for a club. Angus Young recounted in 1998 how Scott had “got about 100 yards down the street when he heard this yell ‘Hey! Bon!’ From what he said, there was this Rosie woman and a friend of hers. They were plying him with drinks and Rosie said to him ‘This month I’ve slept with 28 famous people’ and Bon went ‘Oh yeah?!’ Anyway, in the morning he said he woke up pinned against the wall, he said he opened one eye and saw her lean over to her friend and whisper ‘29!’”

One of the most recognisable and unique intro riffs in the history of music, Thunderstuck is epic whether you are listening to it in the car or live in a stadium and it’s no surprise to see it topping this list. Angus Young has also named it as his favourite AC/DC song though he has explained how he has to “sit down for an hour and make sure I’ve got my fingers warmed up to take on that track”.