AC/DC “Back In Black” released on this date, July 25th 1980. AC/DC’s 7th studio LP and their first with singer Brian Johnson; the band began recording Back In Black just before original singer Bon Scott died in February ‘80, the death officially deemed from “acute alcoholic poisoning and death by misadventure.” Back In Black is beyond iconic hard rock; its anthemic riff-driven rock-n-roll is etched into the collective consciousness of those who listened to basically any kind of music in the 80′s. It has become one of the highest selling albums in history, reaching #1 on the UK album charts and #4 in the US and remained in the Top 200 for 131 weeks. It subsequently has reentered the charts over the years, in 2010 and then again in 2014. As of today, July 25th 2017, it is at #184.

AC/DC released four singles from Back In Black: “You Shook Me All Night Long” (which will forever remind me of my good friend Rhonda who, back in the 80′s, sang – and epitomized – the lyrics “She was a fast machine/She kept her motor clean/She was the best damn woman I had ever seen/She had the sightless eyes/Telling me no lies/Knockin’ me out with those American thighs”); “Hells Bells;” the title track “Back In Black” which has the most quintessential hard rocking opener ever; and “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution,” which was released in spring of ‘81. These singles continue, almost 40 years later, to be staples on classic hard rock radio – I’m pretty much guaranteed at least one AC/DC song when I turn on the radio back in my hometown (WAPL in Appleton) and I always crank it up and sing along.