← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
The AC/DC Rule, Part 1
00:42:18
From AC/DC to Lady Gaga, follow-up albums often do better on the charts than more-loved classics.
Loading summary
Transcript42 lines
- [00:00]
A
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.
- [00:04]
B
Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. It's just $35 for the first year and it supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com, you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade the Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode.
- [00:59]
A
Foreign.
- [01:11]
B
Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show 40 years ago this week, in mid February 1981, Billboard's album chart was dominated by rock groups. They took up half of that week's top 10. LPs by the Police, Blondie, Styx and REO Speedwagon were all riding high, but the album by a rock group that had been lodged in the top 10 the longest came from an Australian band founded by a pair of Scottish brothers, one of whom wore a schoolboy's uniform form while shredding his guitar on stage. Nothing about this band was subtle, including their screeching lead vocalist. Back in Black by ACDC was a monster success and a career triumph. The band had come back from a tragedy that could have broken them up. Instead they wound up with their all time bestseller. The Back in Black LP would ultimately spend years on the album chart and generate the band's two most iconic hits. But Back in Black never topped the Billboard album chart. ACDC would have to wait for the end of 1981 for that to happen. For those about to rock, We Salute you was the album that finally made ACDC chart toppers. But it's a far less well known album, its tracks less familiar, its ultimate sales far lower, and AC DC are not alone in this chart phenomenon. If I played you some hits by other superstars and asked you to guess which of their LPs topped America's premiere album chart, you might have a tough time. Whether it's Cat Stevens Morning has been.
- [03:46]
A
Broken like the first morning.
- [03:52]
B
Boston. Jackson brown. Or pat benatar. In every case, the songs I just played were not on the respective artists number one album. Actually when these acts finally topped the album chart, they did it with the LP just after their biggest hit. And this persisted in into the Soundscan era when the charts got more accurate. And even into the 21st century. As a chart analyst, I needed to coin a term for this album chart idiosyncrasy. And so I named it after the biggest band ever to top the album chart after a better selling but lower charting predecessor. I call it the ACDC Rule.
- [05:20]
A
Dirty Deep, Dirty Deep.
- [05:27]
B
ACDC are a fairly rare phenomenon. A band that changed lead singers and found their greatest success. But they weren't alone. There's at least one other multi platinum hard rock group whose entire discography seemed to exemplify the ACDC rule. Today on Hit Parade, I will explain the causes of this odd pattern. Why a hit act might in the short term chart better with a follow up than they do with a classic. From Jethro Tull to Billy Joel, Hootie and the Blowfish to Radiohead, Lady Gaga to Imagine Dragons, their biggest opening album or even their only chart topping album might not be the they're best remembered. And no act better exemplifies this weird chart pattern than a stalwart group of hard rock thrashers who are still topping charts to this day. And that's where your hit parade marches today, the week ending December 26, 1981, when ACDC finally topped the Billboard 200 album chart with for those About to Rock, We Salute you, their first ever number one album. As far as I'm concerned, For those about to Rock codified a chart tradition that persists to this day, the follow up that is really a referendum on its predecessor. Join me as we walk through some parts quirky hit albums, and I try to decode why I still call this phenomenon the ACDC Rule. Before we plunge into my analysis of hit albums, let's talk nostalgically for a moment about one of those things we can't do right now during the COVID 19 pandemic movies. Remember movies in movie theaters?
- [07:53]
A
I can't believe Vanessa, my bride, my one true love, the woman who taught me the beauty of monogamy, was a fembot all along. Wait a tick, that means I'm single again. Oh, behave.
- [08:16]
B
In the summer of 1999, the movie Austin the Spy who Shagged Me, starring Mike Myers in multiple hilarious comic roles, had a rather historic opening at the US Box office. This sequel was instantly Bigger than its predecessor. How much bigger? In its opening weekend, the Spy who Shagged Me took in more than the first Austin Powers movie grossed in its entire run.
- [08:50]
A
$1 million.
- [08:52]
B
Well, okay, the first movie did better than a million dollars, but it was a rather modest success. 1997's Austin Powers International movie, man of Mystery, was the ultimate slow growing hit. Meyer's first spy spoof film found its audience on cable television and the then new DVD format in the months after it left movie theaters. But while still in cinemas, the first Austin Powers only only grossed a respectable, not spectacular $53 million. Whereas in its first three days, the Spy who Shagged Me raked in nearly 55 million on its way to a final US gross of more than $200 million. Enough for Dr. Evil to purchase whatever he might need.
- [09:55]
A
Sharks with freaking laser beams attached to their heads.
- [09:59]
B
The second Austin Powers holds a un distinction. Reportedly at least as long as box office tallies have been kept, the Spy who Shagged Me stands as the first film ever to outgrow its predecessor in a single weekend. But lots of movie sequels open in that ballpark, particularly if the first film was a surprise hit.
- [10:23]
A
Hello, Neo. Who are you? I am the Architect. I created the Matrix. I've been waiting for you.
- [10:33]
B
After 1999's the Matrix wildly exceeded expectations, revolutionizing millennial special effects and grossing over $170 million, expectations were sky high for 2003's the Matrix Reloaded. In its opening weekend alone, reloaded took in $134 million. Before its second weekend was over, REL had beaten the entire first film's domestic gross. Or here's another example. A couple of years after that.
- [11:08]
A
I got a jar of dirt. I got a jar of dirt, and guess what's inside it?
- [11:13]
B
Enough. No one expected Disney's first Pirates of the Caribbean, 2003's the Curse of the Black Pearl, to do as well as it did. But after it steadily climbed to a $300 million gross, expectations for 2006's sequel, Pirates of the Dead Man's Chest, were off the charts. Dead Man's chest raked in 56 million on its opening day, more than Curse of the Black Pearl had grossed in its entire first weekend. Dead Man's Chest's final gross of $423 million was the highest of the Pirates franchise. Even certain raunchy comedy franchises follow this pattern.
- [12:03]
A
Oh, my God. Alan, your head. No.
- [12:07]
B
Your head. None of the stars of 2009's The Hangover, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis had ever led a blockbuster film. But when the so called Citizen Kane of bachelor party movies became a left field $277 million grossing smash, its 20 follow up, the Hangover Part 2 opened to the biggest first weekend by a comedy film ever, debuting to more than $100 million as much as the first hangover did in 10 days. Now, what else do all of these high grossing sequels have in common? That second film it's generally agreed not to be as good as the first.
- [12:55]
A
This is kind of nice, isn't it? Three of us back together again. Oh God.
- [13:01]
B
The Hangover sequel drew largely negative reviews from many of the same critics who were charmed by the first one. The Pirates sequel was called overlong and overproduced. The second Matrix earned respectful reviews, but many complained its concepts were muddled and that it seemed designed mostly to set up the third Matrix. Even the second, Austin Powers, much as it delighted audiences with new new characters like Mini Me and the ever quotable Fat Bastard.
- [13:34]
A
I'm bigger than you. I'm higher in the food chain. Get in my belly.
- [13:39]
B
It earned Mike Myers praise for his comic chops, but otherwise drew tepid reviews. All four of these sequels have Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores considerably lower than the respective franchise's first films. And in each case, it didn't matter. Audiences were going to show up the first weekend, often the very first night. No matter what critics said and no matter how they felt. Walking out the instant smash opening of these sequels was a referendum on how much audiences loved their predecessors, not the new film. This is just human nature. If a new series of anything catches on through word of mouth or surprised raves, the audience subconsciously says, we won't miss this the next time. So the second season of a TV show opens to much higher ratings than the first, from the Sopranos to the Crown, maybe even in the case of Schitt's Creek, the sixth season books in a long running series typically open bigger with each installment. Later volumes not only top the bestseller list, but garner instant bookstore frenzy, from Harry Potter to Twilight to the Hunger Games. And so it goes with music. Some artists even release numbered albums that open like movie sequels, like this British lady with the powerful voice. Adele's two 2008 debut album, 19 was named after her age. When she finished recording it, it took the better part of a year to reach number 10 on the US album chart, and it sold its first million copies here slowly over the course of three years. Within a month of when it was finally certified platinum, Adele's follow up arrived numbered again, kind of like a movie sequel. And this one came in with a bang. Adele's 2011 album 21, named again for her age when she composed its songs, entered the Billboard 200 album chart at number one in March of 2011. Remember, to this point, her 19 album hadn't gone higher than number 10 on the album chart. Of course, if you were paying any attention to popular music a decade ago, you know where the story goes from here. 21 was a mega blockbuster, selling more copies than any album in 2011 or 2012, going diamond and spinning off multiple smashes like Someone like youe Set Fire to the Rain and of course, Rolling in the Deep. But how did the album come in so hot and heavy? The week 21 dropped, Rolling in the Deep was rising on the Hot 100 Songs chart, but but it wasn't even in the top 10 yet. So why did 2ne1 open so big? Well, over the course of three years, about a million Americans had bought 19 and fallen in love with Adele's voice. They grew to love her gradually, a few fans at a time. But when her second album dropped, these new fans weren't going to wait months to buy Twitter. Many of them about 350,000 in the first week to be exact, had to have it right away. In other words, 2ne1 opened big, not because of anything inherently great about 2ne1. And it is a great album. It was a reflection of Fans love of 19. In its purest form. This is the baseline definition of my ACDC rule, which states initial sales of an album are a referendum on the public's feelings about the act's prior album, not the current one. That's it. That's the rule. So why didn't I name it the Adele Rule? Clearly, the opening sales of 21 were a referendum on 19. And by the way, her third album, the 2015 Uber blockbuster 25 hello from.
- [18:46]
A
The Other Side.
- [18:51]
B
Opened even bigger. 3.38 million soldiers sold in the US in its first week alone, the biggest opening week for any album ever. That first week of 25 was itself a referendum on the public's love for its predecessor, 21. The reason my rule isn't named for Adele is because Adele is honestly not the best example of the Rule.
- [19:18]
A
Never mind I find someone like you I wish nothing but the best. Oh, you too?
- [19:31]
B
The fact is, 2ne1 not only opened bigger than its predecessor, it ultimately sold the best, spun off the most hits, and is generally widely regarded as her best album. It's not overshadowed by 1921 went on to even greater things. No, the real reason I coined the ACDC rule was to pinpoint why certain albums start out bigger than a better loved predecessor, but then ultimately fall short, selling fewer copies, staying on the charts for less time, generating fewer hits, weaker reviews, and maybe just a little less fan love. To me, no band exemplifies this better than acdc. To explain why, let's take a spin through the band's history. As you can probably tell by now, this episode of Hit Parade is not going to be exclusively about acdc, but walking through how they came to record Back in Black and its chart topping follow up will provide a sense for why their chart performance is both totally unique and yet to my heart mind, the prototype for my rule. You could say ACDC arrived on the scene fully formed. Started in Sydney in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, about a decade after the Young family had moved from Scotland to Australia, the band had their brand of no frills hard rock on lock from the jump. ACDC's very first internationally distributed distributed album, High Voltage, composed of songs from two prior Australian albums, set the template leading off with the anthem It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and Roll. The song was riffy, fist pumping, unsubtle, and the album's cover featured imagery that would become iconic for the band, a logo that replaced the slash in in ACDC with a lightning bolt, and an artist's rendering of guitarist Angus Young in a schoolboy uniform. As recently as the mid 2010s, Angus was still wearing a version of the uniform on stage. It was meant to be cheeky, and ACDC were not shy about being as puerile as Angus's outfit.
- [22:29]
A
I've got big balls, I've got big balls.
- [22:33]
B
In his bio of the band on AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine admiringly writes, quote, ACDC were socially maladjusted throughout their career. They favored crude double entendres and violent imagery, all spiked with a mischievous sense of fun. Erlewine adds that the band's then lead singer, Bon Scott, was quite literally labeled socially maladjusted by the Australian army when they rejected Scott for military service. He also had convictions for some minor criminal offenses.
- [23:18]
A
But we've got the biggest.
- [23:23]
B
This proud maladjustment was reflected in ACDC's Music from Jailbreak to Big Balls, which is about pretty much what it sounds like. But the band's delinquent lyrics came packaged in legitimately excellent, raw, bluesy musicianship on tracks like 1977's Whole Lotta Rosie. ACDC were an efficient, unsparing riff machine. But for their first half decade, ACDC were rejected or ignored by various factions in the music industry. Radio programmers, the critics at Rolling Stone magazine, even their own record label. In fact, Atlantic Records refused to issue one of their 1976 albums in the United States entirely. I'll come back to this shortly. By and large, ACDC won their American fan base by touring relentlessly.
- [24:33]
A
Let that in light.
- [24:36]
B
I mean it was light to this point. All of ACDC's album were produced by Malcolm and Angus's older brother George Young and his partner Harry Vanda. They were the co founders of the 60s Australian band the Easy Beats. The group behind the international 60s hit Friday on My Mind.
- [24:59]
A
One day I had Friday on My Mind.
- [25:05]
B
Young and Vander did did a good job presenting ACDCs no Frills Rock. But executives at Atlantic Records were convinced the band could go from a live draw to a major US chart topper if they worked with a more radio friendly producer. Reluctant to ditch their brother George and hating the first producer the label proposed, Malcolm and Angus instead sent a tape of their material to a young South African producer named Robert John Mutt Lang, who was making his name on British hits for acts like Graham Parker and the Boomtown Rats. The pairing of Mutt with AC DC worked out rather well for for everybody, to say the least. Starting with 1979's highway to Hell album, Mutt Lang, the future producer of Def Leppard, the Cars, Brian Adams and Shania Twain, produced a trio of LPs by ACDC that changed everyone's fortunes, including his own. Highway to Hell broke into the top 20 on the album chart and was the band's first US platinum album. Mutt had figured out how to condense ACDC's sound to its essence and how to showcase the piercing vocals of Bong Scott.
- [26:56]
A
You got it. If you won't dance, you got it.
- [27:05]
B
But that's when tragedy struck. Just six months after the release of the highway to Hell album In February of 1980, Bon Scott was found dead of alcohol poisoning at just 33 years of age. Understandably, ACDC considered disbanding. Scott was a celebrated frontman, considered as critical to the band's image as Malcolm Young's riffs or Angus's strutting schoolboy antics. But ACDC did not call it a day. Their next album would be a tribute to Bon Scott and ironically, their biggest LP ever. It sported an all black cover and it opened with funereal Chimes of Doom. Hell's Bells was the leadoff track to Back in Black, one of the best selling LPs in rock history. Producer Mutt Lang honed a single ACDC sound to a diamond hard core. To this day, producers consider it a reference standard for hard rock acoustics and the band delivered both heavyocity and hooks. The album also served as the debut of a new ACDC vocalist, Brian Johnson, a British singer formerly of the band Jordie. He possessed in, if this is even possible, an even higher pitched shriek than Bon Scott. Brian Johnson became the centerpiece of ACDC's new sound, which frankly was not all that different from their old sound for for an album ostensibly about death, Back in Black was on the whole a very lively album. The band hadn't dropped the double entendres. Did I say double? More like single entendres, such as the strutting Let me put my love into you, which I am convinced was the inspiration for Nigel Tufnell's Spinal Tap anthem Lick my love pump.
- [29:37]
A
Let me catch a tank with my name.
- [29:42]
B
More importantly, and this explains why the album continues to sell so well to this day, Back in Black contained ACDC's two most iconic songs. The down and dirty raunchy dance anthem you Shook Me All Night Long, which you probably heard the last time you attended at a wedding, And the album's absolutely killer riftastic title track, a song so strutting and funky it was later sampled in more than 50 hip hop songs.
- [30:27]
A
To be back. You sound that news from the news else can't be hanging about.
- [30:34]
B
These two singles were undeniable enough to become actual pop hits, and each cracked the American top 40. Casey Kasem counted them down. This week, The Australian band AC DC debuts at number 39 with their first top 40 hit, it's called you Shook Me All Night Long. Although neither song was a huge pop hit, you Shook Me All Night long reached number 35 on the Hot 100 and Back in Black number 37. Each became a rock radio staple. By the time Shook reached its Peak in November 1980, the Back in Black LP had cracked the top 10 and was certified certified platinum. It would stay there in the top 10 for nearly six months, peaking at number four in December. Suddenly, the band that Atlantic Records spent the late 70s under promoting was the label's hottest act. And that's when Atlantic pulled the ultimate head fake. They went back to the ACDC album they had refused to release in America in 1976, finally released Stateside in the spring of 1981 that album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap shot into the Billboard LP chart, peaking at number three. What made this doubly confusing for us fans and frustrating for the band was the vocals on the five year old Dirty Deeds were by Bon Scott, ACDC's now deceased frontman. Songs from Dirty Deeds were all over rock radio in the summer of 81, just months after the hits featuring new singer Brian Johnson. At one point that summer, Atlantic even got ACDC's first 1976 album High Voltage onto the Billboard Top LPs chart for the first time. So including their still charting 1979 album highway to Hell, ACDC now had four LPs charting simultaneously and three of them were fronted by late vocalist Bob Scott from Beyond the Grave. I offer all of this backstory to explain why anticipation was so high for ACDC's first 1981 album of new material. They were now the hottest hard rock act in America, but they had yet to score a number one album. They had the number four peaking Back in Black and riding its coattails, the number three reissue of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Working one more time with producer Mutt Lang, ACDC recorded For those About To Rock We Salute you and it arrived like a matrix sequel. In the analog era of the Billboard charts, it was rare for albums to reach number one in less than a month or two. ACDC's for those About to Rock did it in just three weeks, debuting within the top 10 in December 81 and leaping to the top a fortnight later. It stayed there for three weeks. Here's the thing. For those about to Rock, We Salute you is a solid, respectable ACDC album. And by the way, it's got a great title. Rock radio stations dutifully played several of for Those about to rock's songs, including its title track and ACDC's quintessentially lewd follow up single let's Get It up, which just missed the pop top 40, peaking at number 44. But the legacy of this album is clearly overshadowed by its predecessor, Back in Black. Critics have generally regarded for those about to Rock as a three star follow up to a five star classic. It also spent a fraction as long on the charts. Thirty weeks total, a solid run, but a pittance compared with Back in Black's epic run. For the record, Black has spent nearly 450 weeks on the Billboard album chart. It's still on the charts as I speak. In mid February 2021, Back in Black just sold another 3,000 copies. Last. Most telling is the comparison between these two Albums Lifetime Sales for those about to Rock We Salute you is certified by the Recording Industry association of America for total sales of 4 million copies. A quadruple platinum album is more than respectable, but for those about to Rock hasn't been recertified by the RIAA in over two decades and back in black as of 2016, it was certified for sales of 22 million copies. After the RIAA began counting streaming into their tallies, Back in Black was recertified in 2019 for total sales plus streams of 25 million. Whether on CD, vinyl or Spotify, new generations of headbangers discovered discover Back in Black every year. In short, Back in Black, an album that peaked on the chart at number four, has sold about six times as many copies as the number one peaking album that came right after it. That's why I named my decree the ACDC Rule Few acts have such a disparity between their most beloved album and their chart topping but shorter lived follow up. What also makes the band ideal for My Rule is their sonic consistency. ACDC don't record ballads, acoustic numbers, or anything that leans on electronic beats. In the years after Back in Black and for those About To Rock We Salute youe, ACDC stopped working with producer Mutt Lang, but they didn't really alter their formula much at all. They kept recording ribald sex anthems like Sink the P. And ball busting anthems like Heat Seeker. When suspense author and filmmaker Stephen King asked ACDC to do the SoundTrack for his 1986 horror film Maximum Overdrive, AC DC produced another anthem that sounded like ACDC. Who made who? That album sold especially well. At the turn of the 90s, as alternative rock was taking over the radio, ACDC changed their formula not a bit. Even at the dawn of grunge, their LP the Razor's Edge spent more than a year on the charts and generated hard classics like Thunderstruck, Thunder Struck. And their biggest top 40 success, the 1991 number 23 pop hit. Money talks. For acdc. Money does indeed talk. It ain't broke, so they don't fix it. Over the course of a nearly 50 year career, they have scored 20 platinum albums in America, a dozen of which are multi platinum. And yet, if we add up the sales of four of their five biggest albums, namely highway to Hell, Dirty Deeds, who Made who and the Razor's Edge combined, they don't beat Back In Black, by the way, for those about to Rock doesn't even rank among their top five sellers. You couldn't create a band in a lab more perfect for a chart rule than the unfailingly consistent acdc. When we come back, I will apply the ACDC rule to a bunch of artists across chart history, most of whom sound nothing like them. With the possible exception of one other hard rock band who really should have scored a number one album sooner than they did. Non Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfy. That's me. My producer is Asha Soludja, and we also had help from Rosemary Belson, June June Thomas is the senior Managing producer and Gabriel Roth, the Editorial Director of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. We'll see you for part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.