Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Best Rock Albums of 1980

Today's post in 50 Years of Music, a section of my blog devoted to the best rock albums of the past fifty years, will include the best albums of 1980. I have covered 14 years of music in other posts (1965-79), which can be found by typing the year into the search bar at the top of my blog. Each post in 50 Years of Music is updated frequently, with new albums recommended by readers added to the posts. What's your favorite?
  • Van Halen- Women and Children First
  • Def Leppard- On Through The Night
  • Talking Heads- Remain In Light
  • The Pretenders- Pretenders
  • Rush- Permanent Waves
  • REO Speedwagon- Hi Infidelity
  • Black Sabbath- Heaven and Hell
  • Ozzy Osbourne- Blizzard of Ozz
  • Iron Maiden- Iron Maiden
  • Queen- The Game
  • Foghat- Tight Shoes
  • John Lennon & Yoko Ono- Double Fantasy
  • The B-52's- Wild Planet
  • Bruce Springsteen- The River
  • David Bowie- Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
  • Alice Cooper- Flush the Fashion
  • Ted Nugent- Scream Dream 
  • Eagles- Eagles Live (Live Album)
AC/DC- Back in Black (1980)
Back in Black is the seventh studio album by Australian rock group AC/DC and the first album to feature singer Brian Johnson after Bon Scott's death from alcohol poisoning on February 19, 1980. The album was released on July 25, 1980 and has been certified 25x Platinum in the United States, 12x Platinum in Australia, and Platinum in both Canada and the United Kingdom. It would be impossible to list the chartings for Back in Black as the album has re-charted many times over the past twenty five years.

Back in Black includes four singles-- "You Shook Me All Night Long," "Hells Bells," "Back in Black," and "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution." Other notable songs on the album include: "Shoot to Thrill," "Have a Drink On Me," "What Do You Do For Money Honey," and "Let Me Put My Love Into You."

Notable of the album is that it has sold around 50 million copies internationally and is estimated to be the second highest selling rock album of all time. Michael Jackson's 1982 album Thriller takes the #1 spot with estimated sales between 51 million and 65 million units worldwide. Also, the album was recorded in the Bahamas during tropical storm season which caused much interference with the power at the recording studio. Johnson has stated in past interviews that the storms were his inspiration for the opening verse of "Hells Bells": "I'm rolling thunder, pouring rain. I'm comin' on like a hurricane. My lightning's flashin' across the sky. You're only young but you're gonna die..."

For a guitar cover by me recorded in 2009 of a song from Back in Black, just click on the link to the YouTube video: AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long Cover

Alexander Schwartz - JPageFan71
The Antagonists

at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)