Annihilator founder / guitarist Jeff Waters, who is known to be a diehard AC/DC fan, has checked in with the following message regarding the band's biggest selling album, Back In Black:
"World's biggest selling record by a band: Back In Black, released 42 years ago today (July 25th). 52+ million and counting.
Doesn't hurt that it's the BEST overall rock record ever, too. This following the tragic loss of Bon Scott. Numbers like 220+ million in total sales, massive tour, publishing and merch income, etc. are just well-deserved bonuses for AC/DC, but it's a perfect record and one never to be seen again. It set huge rock standards, including songwriting, production, mixing, astronomically influential to most every musician and a frightening example of how you can touch zillions of souls yet retain total artistic genuineness. But most of us already know all this.
Note that the biggest records in the USA are The Eagles Greatest Hits at #1, Michael Jackson's Thriller at #2, and The Eagles with Hotel California at #3. Back In Black is 4th in the USA. For the WORLD, Back In Black is the biggest selling record ever FROM A BAND, not a solo artist.
Hail the Kings of Loud Guitars and R.I.P. Mal and Bon."
Back In Black is AC/DC's seventh studio album. It was released on July 25th, 1980 by Albert Productions and Atlantic Records. It is the band's first album to feature lead singer Brian Johnson, following the death of Bon Scott.
The album was composed by Johnson and guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young, and recorded over seven weeks in the Bahamas from April to May 1980 with producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who had worked on their previous album, Highway to Hell. Following its completion, the group mixed Back In Black at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The album's all-black cover was designed as a "sign of mourning" for Scott.
