You Shook Me All Night Long

This week's edition of Retro Friday features the band AC/DC and the song "You Shook Me All Night Long."

AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. They are most often classified as hard rock, and they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, even though they themselves have always classified their music as plain old "rock and roll". To date they are one of the highest grossing bands of all time. AC/DC underwent several line-up changes before the release of their first album, High Voltage, on 17 February 1975. Band membership remained stable until bassist Mark Evans was replaced by Cliff Williams in 1977 for the album Powerage. Within months of recording the album Highway to Hell, lead singer and co-songwriter Bon Scott died (February 19, 1980), after a night of heavy alcohol consumption. The group briefly considered disbanding, but Scott's parents urged them to continue and hire a new vocalist. Ex-Geordie singer Brian Johnson was auditioned and was ultimately selected to replace Scott. Later that year, the band released their highest selling album, which was also the second highest-selling album by any artist, Back in Black.

"You Shook Me All Night Long" is one of AC/DC's signature songs from their above mentioned most successful album, Back in Black. The song also reappeared on their later album Who Made Who. It is one of the band's top 40 hit singles, reaching number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in 1980. The single was re-released internationally in 1986 following the release of the album Who Made Who.

The song's title quite possibly comes from the song "You Shook Me", a Muddy Waters blues song, in which he sings the line "you shook me all night long".

"You Shook Me All Night Long" placed at No. 10 on VH1's list of "The 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s". It was also No. 1 on VH1's "Top Ten AC/DC Songs". In the song, the lead singer Brian Johnson relates the story of a night with a beautiful woman.

The song "You Shook Me All Night Long" has also become a staple of AC/DC concerts, and is almost never excluded from the set list, and it is also widely known as their signature song, competing with "Back in Black" and "Highway to Hell" for the title.

For some reason, this song has Freshman year written all over it, which somehow I find quite amusing. I have this distinct memory of this song being played, at almost every dance Freshman year. Heck, at every dance in college. It, for whatever reason, was one of those anthems that just had to be played at dances!

Okay, and on that random note, here's a little AC/DC and "You Shook Me All Night Long" for your listening pleasure!


AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long by hushhush112

Cheers!