THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

170-AC/DC-Highway to Hell.

1979-Number 59 single. The song also reached Number 4 in 2013.

Best Bit-At 0.52. It’s a lot easier travelling down the Highway to Hell than it is climbing the Stairway to Heaven.

AC/DC (see also best songs 797 and 245) were formed in 1973, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, they remain active with Angus Young now being the bands one constant. With sales in excess of 200 million Albums they are one of the best selling bands of all time. Their discography consists of 18 studio Albums released between 1975-2020, and 48 singles issued between 1974-2021, On the Aria singles chart in Australia 18 of their songs have made the top 40, while in America on Billboard it stands at 3, and in the UK they have charted 21 times. Up until the re-issue of this song in 2013 AC/DC had achieved 20 top 40 hits in the UK without ever reaching the top 10, with ‘Heatseeker’ from 1988 being their highest charting song up until then when making Number 12. AC/DC have never issued an official greatest hits Album, probably because if people want one of their songs, then they will have to go and buy the Album it is featured on.

‘Highway to Hell,’ which also served as the title track to AC/DC’s sixth studio Album from 1979 was co-written by Bon Scott, (1946-1980) Angus Young, and his brother Malcolm Young (1953-2017.) The Album was produced by Mutt Lange, (see also best songs 632-479 and 314) who was hired to give the band a radio friendly sound, which he succeeded in doing, as ‘Highway to Hell’ did finally give them the much sought after commercial breakthrough.

There are two possible explanations as to what inspired the writing of ‘Highway to Hell.’ Angus Young who wrote the tracks acclaimed guitar solo has said that the song is about the gruelling tours the band would undertake in the early days to promote themselves. The other explanation is about the ‘Canning Highway,’ which connects the Perth Kwinana freeway to it’s port Fremantle. This was the road Bon Scott would take when visiting the ‘Raffles Hotel,’ which was a big ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll’ drinking venue. As Caning Highway gets close to the pub it dips in to a steep decline. Many people were killed by driving too fast over the intersection at the top of the hill, and that it is why it is called ‘Highway to Hell.’

‘Highway to Hell’ was the last Album to feature Bon Scott as the lead singer. Scott was born Ronald Belford Scott on July 9th, 1946, in Forfar, Angus, Scotland, he died on February 19th, 1980, from acute alcohol poisoning, which was classified as ‘death by misadventure,’ he was 33 years old. In 1952 Scott moved to Australia with his family where they lived in Melbourne for four years before settling in Fremantle, Western Australia. It was while in Melbourne at primary school that he acquired the nickname ‘Bon,’ because there was another Ronald in the class, so his classmates played on the phrase “Bonnie Scotland”. Bon Scott is considered by some to be the greatest front man in a band of all time.

In the UK in 2013 in an effort to stop the British television talent show ‘X-Factor’ from having yet another Xmas Number 1 song,’Highway to Hell’ was chosen as an alternative, and after a country wide campaign the song peaked at Number 4 on that years Xmas chart, giving AC/DC their highest ever charting single in the UK.

‘No stop signs, speed limit, nobody’s gonna slow me down. Like a wheel, gonna spin it, nobody’s gonna mess me around. Hey Satan, paying my dues, playing in a rocking band.’