It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)

"It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)"
Single by AC/DC
from the album T.N.T.
B-side"Can I Sit Next to You Girl"
Released8 December 1975 (1975-12-08) (AUS)
15 April 1976 (1976-04-15) (UK)[1]
StudioAlbert (Sydney)
GenreHard rock
Length5:15
LabelAlbert
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
AC/DC singles chronology
"High Voltage"
(1975) 		"It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)"
(1975) 		"T.N.T."
(1976)

"It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" is a song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It is the first track of the group's second album T.N.T., released only in Australia and New Zealand on 8 December 1975, and was written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott. The song combines bagpipes with hard rock instrumentation; in the middle section of the song there is a call and response between the bagpipes and guitar.[2] The original recording is in B-flat major, but it was played live in A major.[3]

Record World said that it shows "a firm grasp on rock dynamics" and sounds "like a cross between the Stones and the Easybeats."[4]

The song is also the first track on the internationally released High Voltage (April 1976).

The full version of the song is also on the Volts CD of the Bonfire box set, released in 1997.

This was a signature song for Bon Scott. Brian Johnson, who replaced Scott as AC/DC's lead vocalist after Scott's death in 1980, does not perform it, out of respect for his predecessor.[5]

In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" was ranked number 5.[6]

  1. ^ "AC/DC singles".
  2. ^ Wall, Mick (2012). AC/DC: Hell Aint a Bad Place to Be. London: Orion Publishing group. ISBN 9781409115359.
  3. ^ Evans, Mark, Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC, Bazillion Points, 2011, p. 40.
  4. ^ "Hits of the Week" (PDF). Record World. 27 November 1976. p. 1. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  5. ^ "The legend lives on in a laneway to heaven", The Age, 15 February 2005. Retrieved on 2007-02-15.
  6. ^ "Here Are The Songs That Made Triple M's 'Ozzest 100'". Musicfeeds. 27 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2020.