Album dossier / 1980

Back in Black

AC/DC · Hard Rock

Recorded in about six weeks at Chris Blackwell's Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Back in Black was made barely two months after singer Bon Scott's death, with new frontman Brian Johnson writing lyrics on the fly as backing tracks were cut largely live by Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd. Producer Mutt Lange and engineer Tony Platt built the record's outsized rhythm-guitar sound from paired Neumann U67/U87 mics on vintage Marshall stacks with almost no studio effects, and discovered a 'sweet spot' in the live room that made Rudd's snare hit bigger and snappier. For the tolling bell on 'Hells Bells,' Platt sourced a genuine one-ton bell from a UK foundry and captured it with the Ronnie Lane Mobile studio. Vocals and final mixing wrapped at Electric Lady Studios in New York ahead of the album's July 1980 release; it has since sold more than 50 million copies, trailing only Thriller as the best-selling album of all time.