AC/DC - Highway to Hell - Music & Performance - Vinyl

Vinyl LP reissue from 2003. Original lead vocalist Bon Scott left a kickin' legacy on this classic AC/DC album from 1979. His tragic passing in early 1980 overshadowed the album's success, but he left the charts burning with the hits "Highway to Hell" (#47 on the Billboard Hot 100), "Girls Got Rhythm" and "Touch Too Much." Famed producer Mutt Lange also helped push the band's envelope, and the album peaked at #17 on the Billboard 200 chart. Through the advances in digital technology, the classic was successfully remastered with a greater clarity and intensity in 2003. The vinyl LP remains a masterpiece of hard rock.

Of course, Highway to Hell is the final album AC/DC recorded with Bon Scott, the lead singer who provided the group with a fair share of its signature sleaze. Just months after its release, Scott literally partied himself to death (the official cause cited as acute alcohol poisoning) after a night of drinking, a rock & roll fatality that took no imagination to predict. In light of his passing, it's hard not to see Highway to Hell as a last testament of sorts, being that it was his last work and all, and if Scott was going to go out in a blaze of glory, this certainly was the way to do it. This is a veritable rogue's gallery of deviance, from cheerfully clumsy sex talk and drinking anthems to general outlandish behavior. It's tempting to say that Scott might have been prescient about his end -- or to see the title track as ominous in the wake of his death -- trying to spill it all out on paper, but it's more accurate to say that the ride had just gotten very fast and very wild for AC/DC, and he was simply flying high. After all, it wasn't just Scott who reached a new peak on Highway to Hell; so did the Young brothers, crafting their monster riffs into full-fledged, undeniable songs. This is their best set of songs yet, from the incessant, intoxicating boogie of "Girls Got Rhythm" to "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)." Some of the credit should also go to Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who gives the album a precision and magnitude that the Vanda & Young LPs lacked in their grimy charm. Filtered through Mutt's mixing board, AC/DC has never sounded so enormous, and they've never had such great songs, and they had never delivered an album as singularly bone-crunching or classic as this until now. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Performer	AC/DC
Music genre	Heavy Metal
Music subgenre	POP, ROCK
Music release type	Vinyl
Media format	LP
Original release date	1979
Edition	Standard
Is collectible	Y
Number of tracks	1
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Track listing	Highway to Hell, Girls Got Rhythm, Walk All Over You, Touch Too Much, Beating Around the Bush, Shot Down in Flames, Get It Hot, If You Want Blood (You've Got It), Love Hungry Man, Night Prowler
Record label	Sony
Songwriter	Ac/Dc
Number in series	1
Occasion	Christmas
Track name	Highway to Hell
Music media format	Vinyl Record
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N