AC/DC’s second Brian Johnson album ‘For Those About To Rock We Salute You’ turned 40 this week.
‘For Those About To Rock We Salute You’ was released on 20 November 1981. It was the follow-up to the first album without Bon Scott ‘Back In Black’, released on year earlier on 25 July 1980.
While ‘Back In Black’ went on to sell over 25 million in America, it only made it to number 4 at the time. ‘For Those About To Rock We Salute You’ was AC/DC’s first number one album in the USA. They didn’t have another number one in America until ‘Black Ice’ in 2008. They also had a number one record in 2020 in America with their most recent album ‘Power Up’.
The title track ‘For Those About To Rock’ went on to become a highlight of every AC/DC concert with cannons fired at the crowd. The influence for the cannons came from the wedding of Charles and Diana. AC/DC were recording the song on the same day as the wedding. The wedding was on television in the background. Angus Young saw the wedding cannons and decided then and there it would make a good addition to the song. The AC/DC cannon were recorded a month after the wedding because the mobile truck recording studio needed to make the recording was being used by Peter Gabriel that day.
The only two singles released off ‘For Those About To Rock We Salute You’ were ‘Let’s Get It Up’ and ‘For Those About To Rock’. Neither were hits.
AC/DC followed up ‘For Those About To Rock We Salute You’ with ‘Flick of the Switch’ (no 15, 1983), ‘Fly On The Wall’ (no 32, 1985) and ‘Blow Up Your Video’ (no 12, 1988). They returned to the Top 10 in 1990 with ‘The Razor’s Edge’, the album featuring ‘Thunderstruck’. Every album after that has been a Top 10 success in the USA.
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