AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” Hammering Its Way to Success
up with this thunder thing based on our favourite childhood toy, ThunderStreak, and it seemed to have a good ring to it. AC/DC = Power. That’s the basic idea.”Initially the riff was just to be the opener. Producer Bruce Fairbairn recollected how Angus thought the song needed a starting hook. The guitarist lit up a cigarette and powered his way through. He continued riding that riff throughout the whole song.“It was all done in one take. At the end, with this long bit of ash on the cigarette, he said, ‘How about that Bruce?’ It was so awesome, we just left it like that.”The shredadelic sound of the track harks back to the Young brothers’ love for ‘50s rock pioneers as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard. They put a stress on lead and rhythm guitar on their tracks, which the Youngs adopted and utilised to gain 200 million record sales altogether.The lineup on Thunderstruck also included Brian Johnson (lead vocals), Cliff Williams (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Chris Slade (drums, percussion).In 1990, the track reached #4 on the Top 100 ARIA chart, certified 10 x platinum for sales of 700,000. It sold 10 million copies in the United States, and charted in 22 countries.By last October it had turned over 2.27 billion streams. The official video has generated 1.7 billion YouTube views, the band’s most popular on the platform. In January 2018, it ranked #8 “most Australian song of all time” in radio network Triple M’s “Ozzest 100”.It is used in sporting matches, fashion parades, and athletes like WWE champion Drew McIntyre as part of his workout routine. It’s in demand for use by film makers as well. But they are expensive: its use in the hungover football game sequence in Varsity Blues cost $500,000 for just two minutes, said Parade.This week’s ARIA Top 50 Replay Single also has You Shook Me All Night Long hanging in at #10 (total of 44 weeks), Highway To Hell moving to #11 from #12, Back In Black at #19 while TNT is at the lower end of the Top 50, at #46 from last week’s #49.