France Album Sales: AC/DC
Flick Of The Switch (1983) Era
I mentioned earlier how important it is to adopt the most appropriate suit in order to give the most appropriate image of your talents. After three massively successful albums full of radio hits produced by Robert John “Mutt” Lange, in 1983 AC/DC decided to produce their new album by themselves, Flick Of The Switch. The result? A flop. While the three Lange albums had sold 10 million units in the US by that time – and over 35 million up to date – this one struggled to reach half a million plateau.
The story was the same in France. If the quiet competition due to the summer release and the band fan base enabled the album to go #5, it had no legs at all desperately lacking a radio friendly single. This record still went Gold but needed over six months to do so, while its predecessor went Platinum, four times higher, in one month only. The negative impact hasn’t happened only on the group new album as after the huge 80-82 years, their back catalog declined severely from 1983 onwards.
In 1984, ’74 Jailbreak, an EP of their early songs not available on previous international albums, mostly missing tracks of the original High Voltage album, was released. It wasn’t successful at all initially failing to chart, although it kept selling a few units ever since.
Top 3 Most Streamed Tracks on Spotify
- Guns For Hire – 994,000
- Flick Of The Switch – 267,000
- Rising Power – 225,000