France Album Sales: AC/DC
Highway To Hell (1979) Era
Artists careers are no different than our own life’s. Many people have incredible talents. For most, they will remain unidentified. For others, they notice it but they are not able to sell them well. It needs advices and training to buy the correct suits, to know the best words at the most appropriate moments. This knowledge in order to be properly formatted to put our talents into the spotlight are needed.
For artists this is pretty much the same. A group may be incredibly talented, displaying this talent in an understandable way to the general public is just a different job.
Now that Atlantic was well aware of their potential, AC/DC received the treatment of major acts in order to make it big. This doesn’t include only the promotion, but also the production. Founding members Young brothers had to get rid of their own big brother as producer to be replaced by legendary Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, Led Zeppelin), but they appeared unable to work with him. Ultimately, they collaborated with Robert John “Mutt” Lange, the one responsible of acts as diverse as Def Leppard, Foreigner, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, The Corrs, Nickelback, Maroon 5 and last Muse album.
Back to AC/DC, this new team Lange & AC/DC team resulted on Highway To Hell album, which notably included the title track. Their first Hot 100 hit at #47, the song was a radio hit and a strong support for the album which debuted at #8 in UK and peaked at #17 in the US. In France too, the album entered at an impressive #8 position showing both the success of their new song as well as the results of their growing fan base. Selling nearly 200,000 units in 1979, the album was officially awarded Gold in January 1980. As it contained all their previous hits, 1978 live album If You Want Blood You’ve Got It was the main benefiter of the band new popularity level and went Gold at the same time, representing 100,000 units.
Holding inside the Top 25 for seven months, just when Highway To Hell was slowing down AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott shockingly passed away in February 1980. This caused the album to immediately reenter after its drop out for as many as four months, sending the album up to 330,000 units by mid-1980. All their previous studio albums got a boost as well, closing in the 100,000 mark each, a mark that was soon to be eclipsed.
Top 3 Most Streamed Tracks on Spotify
- Highway To Hell – 41,678,000
- If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) – 4,974,000
- Touch Too Much – 2,380,000