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| "You Shook Me All Night Long" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byAC/DC | ||||
| from the albumBack in Black andWho Made Who | ||||
| B-side | "Have a Drink on Me" (UK/US) "What Do You Do for Money Honey" (Aus) | |||
| Released | 15 August 1980 (1980-08-15)[1] | |||
| Recorded | April – May 1980 | |||
| Studio | Compass Point (Nassau) | |||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||
| Length | 3:32 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Robert John "Mutt" Lange | |||
| AC/DC singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Alternative cover | ||||
 1986 re-release | ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "You Shook Me All Night Long" "You Shook Me All Night Long" (Who Made Who) onYouTube | ||||
"You Shook Me All Night Long" is a song by Australian hard rock bandAC/DC, from the albumBack in Black. The song also reappeared on their later soundtrack albumWho Made Who. It is AC/DC's first single withBrian Johnson as the lead singer, replacingBon Scott who died ofalcohol poisoning in February 1980. It reached number 35 on the USBillboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in1980. The single was re-released internationally in 1986, following the release of the albumWho Made Who. The re-released single in 1986 contains the B-side(s): B1. "She's Got Balls" (Live, Bondi Lifesaver '77); B2. "You Shook Me All Night Long" (Live '83 – 12-inch maxi-single only).
In January 2018, as part ofTriple M's "Ozzest 100", the "most Australian" songs of all time, "You Shook Me All Night Long" was ranked number 63.[2]
Record World said it has "a truckload of gravel and enough raunch to satisfy a stadium-size crowd," as well as "havoc wrecking guitar blasts."[3]
"You Shook Me All Night Long" placed at number 10 on VH1's list of "The 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s". It was also number 1 on VH1's "Top Ten AC/DC Songs".Guitar World placed "You Shook Me All Night Long" at number 80 on their "100 Greatest Guitar Solos" list. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 287 onRolling Stone's "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time."[4]
Rock criticRobert Christgau regarded it as a "drum-hooked fucksong" and the band's "only great work of art".[5]
The song has also become a staple of AC/DC concerts, and is rarely excluded from the setlist.[6]
Four live versions of the song were officially released. The first one appeared on the 1986 maxi-single "You Shook Me All Night Long"; the second one was included on the band's albumLive; the third version is on the soundtrack to theHoward Stern moviePrivate Parts, and also appears on the AC/DC box setBacktracks; and the fourth one is on the band's live album,Live at River Plate.[citation needed]
"You Shook Me All Night Long" was also the second song to be played by AC/DC onSaturday Night Live in 2000, following their performance of "Stiff Upper Lip."[7] When AC/DC was inducted to theRock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 bySteven Tyler ofAerosmith, they performed this song with Tyler.[8]
Johnson performed the song withBilly Joel atMadison Square Garden in New York in March 2014. TheSalon publication stated on the following morning in its introduction to the video footage of the performance: "This will either be your favorite video today, or a total musical nightmare!"[9]
At one of his two shows atSt James' Park in June 2023,Sam Fender brought Johnson on stage to perform "Back in Black" and "You Shook Me All Night Long" with him.[10]
The song is in the key ofG major. The main verse and riff follows aG–C–D chord progression.[citation needed]
There have been several claims made since it was released that (at least) some parts of the lyrics to the song were written by Bon Scott.
Silver Smith, late former girlfriend of Bon Scott, interviewed byJesse Fink for his biography of Scott,Bon: The Last Highway, said: "I know for sure that [the song] was written at [my flat in] Gloucester Road [in Kensington, London] back in '76. 'She told me to come but I was already there' – he wrote that in a letter to somebody, one of his grotty mates, just after we got together, actually. He always kept notebooks and added and subtracted to them and so on. He put in 'American thighs' even way back then, because that was the market they were going to try and crack. So that was written a long time ago."[11] In the same book, Scott's girlfriend in Miami, Florida, a woman under the pseudonym "Holly X", says the original lyric "chartreuse eyes" was changed to "sightless eyes" and that she had a horse called Doubletime. The lyrics "working double time on the seduction line" appear in the finished song.
Doug Thaler, Bon's friend and AC/DC's booking agent on their American tours, also says: "I don't care who tells me anything different: you can bet your life that Bon Scott wrote the lyrics to 'You Shook Me All Night Long'. It's Bon Scott's lyrics all over the place."[11]
FromAC/DC: Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be byMick Wall: "HoweverMalcolm Dome claims that shortly before he died, Bon 'shoved me his book of lyrics. He had sheets of lyrics that he kept in a file, carried them around. He'd been showing me some of the ideas he'd been working for Back in Black. Not the song 'Back in Black' but songs that were for the next album. There were a couple of lines, like, 'She told me to come but I was already there', which ended up in 'You Shook Me All Night Long' – that's a Bon lyric. And I saw it. I saw it written down. There were lyrics, lines used, on Back in Black that Bon wrote. [But] he wasn't credited and to this day no one's really sure what happened. I don't think he even got close to finishing the whole songs. But there are lines in there that I know."[12]
Dome also stated "Bon proudly showed me some of the scribbles he'd put down in preparation for an album he felt would define AC/DC – and open up new possibilities as well. It's hard to be absolutely accurate from a distance of quarter of a century, and through the haze of alcohol which enveloped the night, but one line sticks in my mind as being on one of those sheets: 'She told me to come, but I was already there.' A renowned lyric from the song 'You Shook Me All Night Long', it has Bon's trademark all over it – a neatly worked double entendre that fits in with the track record of a man who wrote Big Balls, The Jack and other similarly styled songs."[13]
There are twomusic videos. The first is directed by Eric Dionysius and Eric Mistler,[14] is similar to the otherBack in Black videos ("Back in Black", "Hells Bells", "What Do You Do For Money Honey", "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" and "Let Me Put My Love Into You") and is available on the specialBack in Black, The Videos. It is also included on theBacktracks box set.[citation needed]
The second is directed byDavid Mallet[15] and released six years after the song's original release (when the song was reissued inWho Made Who).Angus andMalcolm Young follow Johnson around theWest Riding of Yorkshire town ofHuddersfield, with Angus Young wearing his signature schoolboy outfit. The video clip casts the English glamour modelCorinne Russell, a formerHill's Angel andPage 3 Girl—along with other leather clad women wearing suits with zips at the groin region—pedaling exercise bicycles in the background.
TheVH1 seriesPop-Up Video revealed that, during the scene with the mechanical bull, the woman playing Johnson's lover accidentally jabbed herself with her spur twice. The roadie who came to her aid married her a year later, and Angus Young gave them a mechanical bull as a wedding present as a joke. In the original 1980 videoPhil Rudd played drums, while the 1986 video showedSimon Wright, who replaced Rudd in 1983. Rudd returned to AC/DC in 1994.[citation needed]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[30] | 10× Platinum | 700,000‡ |
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[31] | Platinum | 60,000‡ |
| Canada (Music Canada)[32] | Diamond | 800,000‡ |
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[33] | Platinum | 90,000‡ |
| Germany (BVMI)[34] | Gold | 250,000‡ |
| Italy (FIMI)[35] | 2× Platinum | 140,000‡ |
| Mexico (AMPROFON)[36] | Diamond | 300,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[37] | 5× Platinum | 150,000‡ |
| Portugal (AFP)[38] | Platinum | 40,000‡ |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[39] | 2× Platinum | 120,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[40] | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[41] | 6× Platinum | 6,000,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[42] (Mastertone) | Platinum | 1,000,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
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