LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES SEPTEMBER 10, 2019-TWENTY NINE YEARS AGO AC/DC RELEASED THE SINGLE ‘THUNDERSTRUCK.’ FOR MANY YEARS BOTH ANGUS AND MALCOLM YOUNG WOULD B.S. PEOPLE ON THE ORIGINS OF THE SONG. THEY WOULD OFTEN TELL THE STORY ABOUT HAVING THE INSPIRATION FOR THE SONG WHEN ANGUS WAS FLYING ON A PLANE THAT WAS HIT BY LIGHTNING AND ALMOST CRASHED. THEY WERE DICKING WITH PEOPLE.
WITH THE RE-RELEASE OF ‘THE RAZORS EDGE’ IN 2003, ANGUS EXPLAINED THE ORIGINS OF THE SONG IN THE LINER NOTES:
“It started off from a little trick that I had on guitar. I played it to Mal and he said, ‘Oh I’ve got a good rhythm idea that will sit well in the back.’ We built the song up from that. We fiddled about with it for a few months before everything fell into place. Lyrically, it was really just a case of finding a good title, something along the lines of ‘Powerage’ or ‘Highway To Hell.’ We came up with this thunder thing and it seemed to have a good ring to it. AC/DC = Power. That’s the basic idea.”
‘THUNDERSTRUCK’ WAS THE FIRST TRACK ON THE ALBUM ‘THE RAZORS EDGE’, BUT IT WASN’T RELEASED AS A SINGLE. THIS WAS DONE TO PROPEL MORE LUCRATIVE ALBUM SALES. IT HELPED ‘THE RAZORS EDGE’ SELL OVER 5 MILLION COPIES. EVEN THOUGH IT WAS NEVER RELEASED AS A SINGLE, ACCOUNTING FOR DOWNLOADS, RADIO AIRPLAY, VIDEO HITS AND STREAMING, ‘THUNDERSTRUCK’ HOLDS THE TITLE AS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL SONG OF 1990, WITH THE EQUIVALENT SALES OF 15,460,000 COPIES SOLD.
HERE’S THE OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR AC/DC’S ‘THUNDERSTRUCK’
