AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ Receives New Platinum Certification

AC/DC and their landmark album Back in Black continues to make history.

On July 8, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the classic album as 26 times platinum for moving an equivalent of 26 million copies since its release in 1980. The last platinum certification for Back in Black was in December 2019 when the RIAA certified the album 25 times platinum.

With this latest certification, Back in Black is now tied with the Eagles' Hotel California as the third-highest-selling album in history in the United States. The only two titles to top Back in Black and Hotel California are Michael Jackson's Thriller (34 times platinum) and the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 (38 times platinum).

AC/DC dominated a recent list about rock drinking songs.

This list was put together by Flask & Barrel, who analyzed over 23,000 drinking playlists from Spotify. In total, over 2.5 million songs were featured among these playlists. Flask & Barrel noted regarding AC/DC, "Our favorite drinking songs from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are all by AC/DC."

In fact, when Flask & Barrel broke these playlists down by genre, four AC/DC songs were featured in the rock top ten, when determining how many times a certain song appeared in one of the aforementioned playlists. The top ten is as follows:

10. Toto - "Africa" (379 playlist inclusions)
9. Journey - "Don't Stop Believin'" (380 playlist inclusions)
8. AC/DC - "You Shook Me All Night Long (393 playlist inclusions)
7. Fleetwood Mac - "Dreams" (410 playlist inclusions)
6. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Fortunate Son" (411 playlist inclusions)
5. Eagles - "Hotel California" (430 playlist inclusions)
4. AC/DC - "Back In Black" (447 playlist inclusions)
3. Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Sweet Home Alabama" (470 playlist inclusions)
2. AC/DC - "Highway to Hell" (477 playlist inclusions)
1. AC/DC - "Thunderstruck" (521 playlist inclusions)

"Thunderstruck" topping this list isn't terribly surprising, especially for those familiar with the drinking game attached to it. For those not familiar, the game involves you and your friends in a circle. Whomever is the first player, they start drinking their drink when they hear the first utterance of "thunder." When "thunder" or "thunderstruck" is next said, the current player stops drinking, and the next player starts, and this pattern continues for the whole song.

AC/DC also topped the list of favorite rock artists to drink to. That top ten list is as follows:

10. Green Day (2,332 playlist appearances)
9. Guns N' Roses (2,451 playlist appearances)
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival (2,603 playlist appearances)
7. Led Zeppelin (2,713 playlist appearances)
6. Nirvana (2,788 playlist appearances)
5. Fleetwood Mac (2,864 playlist appearances)
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers (2,885 playlist appearances)
3. The Rolling Stones (3,242 playlist appearances)
2. Queen (3,512 playlist appearances)
1. AC/DC (4,143 playlist appearances)

There are big albums, there are monster albums and then there’s AC/DC’s Back In Black, which in terms of grandness is like Godzilla on HGH.

The landmark album turns 43 today (July 25,) but frankly, it feels weird attaching a number to a work like this. Why? Because it’s timeless. It’s never lost its sense of cool, nor has it really aged or become “dated.”

In the decades since its release, it’s evolved from being an album to essentially being a rock and roll starter kit. Know a young kid just getting into rock music? Give them a copy of Back In Black. Need to set the vibe for a party? Put on Back In Black. Want to curate the soundtrack of a badass? No need to hem and haw over a playlist, because there’s Back In Black! AC/DC did the curating for you! (Well, perhaps producer Mutt Lange helped a little.)

No album collection is really complete without Back In Black, and truth be told, there are likely very few collections without it. When you move 25 million copies in the United States alone and 50 million copies worldwide, more often than not you’ll find this LP tucked away somewhere in a collection, preferably at the beginning of a record collection, if only for alphabetical reasons. (Unless you have some sort of wacky way you organize your albums besides alphabetically. If so, “at” me, because I’d love to know what it is.)

There’s also no better tribute album in rock history. When Bon Scott suddenly passed away in February 1980, few could’ve expected that five months later AC/DC would not just recruit another incredible vocalist in Brian Johnson but also become one of the biggest bands in the world. The show went on, but not before paying respect to Scott. It only seems fitting for a massive personality to receive an equally massive ode.

So, how does a mere mortal honor such a tribute? By painstakingly ranking all ten tracks on this album, which is not an easy task since each track is a winner without an ounce of filler. Enjoy!