LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-AUGUST 28, 2019-ELEVEN YEARS AGO AC/DC RELEASED ‘ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TRAIN.’ IT MARKED THE FIRST NEW SINGLE FROM AC/DC IN EIGHT YEARS, WHICH UP TO THEN, WAS THE LONGEST GAP IN THE BAND’S HISTORY. THE STRENGTH OF THIS SINGLE HELPED THE ALBUM ‘BLACK ICE’ DEBUT AT NUMBER 1 ON THE ALBUM CHARTS, SELLING OVER 780,000 COPIES IN ITS FIRST WEEK. IT WAS AC/DC’S FIRST TOP CHARTING RELEASE IN THE U.S. SINCE THE ALBUM ‘FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK’ IN 1981. IN AMERICA, THE BLACK ICE ALBUM WAS RELEASED EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH WAL-MART AND SAM’S CLUB, AND THE BAND’S WEBSITE.
BRIAN JOHNSON EXPLAINED WHY THE BAND MADE THE EXCLUSIVE DEAL WITH WALMART:”A lot of people were saying ‘Ah man, you’re going to the big Wal-Mart, you’re selling out.’ Wal-Mart were the only big store to stock all of our albums, every single one of them, and they’ve never deviated. And they sold AC/DC shirts and pajamas for kids, which we thought was really cool.
THE SINGLE WAS HUGE FOR THE GROUP, AND ACTED AS A GREAT OPENING TO SONG ON THE “BLACK ICE TOUR.”
HERE’S AC/DC PERFORMING ‘ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TRAIN’
