Ronald ‘Bon’ Scott had an unprecedented impact on the legendary rock band AC/DC as we know it today. The Australian-raised singer and songwriter was born in Forfar, the county town of Angus, Scotland, on the 9th of July 1946; spending most of his childhood in Kirriemuir until his family decided to emigrate to Australia in 1952 when he was just 6 years old. He’s been on the music scene from 1964-1980, playing in three other bands: Fraternity, The Valentines and The Spektors.

Bon Scott, although he was no longer there, made some minor contributions to 'Back in Black' before his death, playing the drums only on a few demo versions of songs that are not present on the album itself. He was immortalised forever on the album’s cover, his death is why the album cover itself is entirely black and grey, along with the album title, Back in Black, a reference to funerary dress.

He was the driving force behind AC/DC's best albums, performing the first six, most prominent, AC/DC tracks/albums:

High Voltage (first release internationally in 1976)
T.N.T. (1976)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976, released 1981 in the US)
Let There Be Rock (1977)
Power Agency (1978)
Highway to Hell (1979)

Bon Scott died tragically on the 19th of February 1980, in South London. His death was the result of alcohol poisoning. Bon strongly recommended a band he'd seen in Newcastle before his death. Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange (the producer) also mentioned the same singer, Brian Johnson.

Johnson, who had previously been apart of the glam rock band Geordie, a band that had multiple successes, even breaking into the top 10 UK singles chart in April 1973. Johnson was brought down to audition. He was initially reluctant because of his previous experiences in the industry and because of the cost of travelling down to London from Newcastle.

In the end, he only went down because of an offer to sing on an advert for Hoover; six weeks after Bon Scott's death. He was announced as the new singer on the 1st of April, 1980. Recording started soon after at Compass Studios in Nassau, the Bahamas. Recordings lasted over seven weeks from April to May 1980. The title track, Back in Black, was first recorded in Compass Studios.

Tony Platt was the sound engineer for the album, and he goes off of the philosophy that although separating the instruments’ recordings is important for control, spillover between recordings of each instrument is a minor desire in order to create something to go off of when mixing.

He initially began by walking around the recording room, carrying and hitting a snare drum, to try and find the ideal location for the drum kit. A space above the ceiling enhanced the bass qualities in one area where the drum kit was set up. There was also a small separation booth directly next to where the drums had been placed, and so the bass cab was placed there, as he was concerned about the level of spillover caused by the bass.

Smaller rooms were then built inside the recording room to have greater control over the spill. The bands founding members, Scottish-born brothers, Malcolm and Angus Young, were then placed inside with their amps, Malcolm left, Angus right. The musicians still had line of sight and could hear each other playing which helped them perform cohesively. Tony was trying to have their relative positions in the recording room close to where their positions would be on stage, in a live environment.

AC/DC Argentina 2009 - Estadio Monumental, Buenos Aires. Live at River Plate. Black Ice World Tour. Picture source: Ed Vill

Between songs, adjustments were done to amplifier settings, with small mic placement adjustments. Additionally, cabs and amp heads would be changed entirely depending on the song. Each song was handed on its own independence from the others. Neumann U67 and U87s, large diaphragm condensers, were used for the guitar recordings. These mics are multi-pattern and as such, cardioid, Omni, and figure of eight were all used depending on song and requirement.

Bass drum, snares and toms were re-tuned for each song, and vocals were recorded after the instrumentation was done, there were no guide vocals. They were also recorded using a Neumann U87. The studio had a 48–channel MCI console, a 24–track MCI tape machine, and the monitors had Tannoy Red drivers inside Lockwood cabinets. Angus would also use a radio transmitter during solos, sending the signal to the amp, which was the only use of overdubbing across the album. After the solo, he would follow back into the rhythm part to keep the energy.

'Hells Bells’ the second single was written lyrically first, with direct inspiration from the tropical storms hitting Australia at the time. The bells used in Hells Bells were not sampled (although the band originally tried recording church bells but kept having the sounds of birds being captured as well) but was recorded with a bell commissioned at the John Taylor Loughborough bell foundry just for the recording.

As of 2020, the iconic bell foundry has been taken off the ‘heritage at risk’ register after being saved from demolition by a £3.45 million grant donated by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The custom-made, 1300 kilo AC/DC bell has also been a staple in the band’s live performances, with a replica of the original bell out when playing Hells Bells. One show featuring the iconic bell was the gig at Donington Park Motor Circuit in Leicestershire, England on the 17th of August 1991:

The song ‘Shoot to Thrill’ Angus was unhappy with, and so when the recordings were sent to Electric Lady Studios in New York, he asked to rerecord, and the transmitters hadn't been taken with them making the recording difficult to mix and work correctly with the rest of the song. When asked about the meaning of the track, Brian Johnson recounted reading a story about a local pusher who sold street Valium in the London suburbs, peddling to depressed women while explaining the song's lyrical inspiration; These substance-affected women would scan the neighbourhood clubs and pubs in search of raucous, ‘extramarital’ affairs.

Malcolm Young utterly despised the original lead vocalist Dave Evans before Bon joined the band as the new lead vocalist, quoted saying “people cheered when he left.” He also recalled when Bon joined shortly after: “Bon was in a week later. He had songs, ideas, and motivation. He's serious. We were happy to be with someone like that. We were just happy to be playing. He had bigger plans."

Released on the 25th of July 1980, Back in Black is 25 times platinum - 25 million copies sold. The fourth biggest selling album in the US (behind Michael Jacksons Thriller and the Eagle's Hotel California/greatest hits)- but never reaching the top spot in the US charts. In the US, it stayed in the charts for 131 weeks. Robert John 'Mutt' Lange was the album’s producer.

AC/DC: The legacy of Bon Scott within Back in Black