“Hells Bells” by AC/DC

"Hells Bells" opens Back in Black, AC/DC's 1980 comeback after the death of Bon Scott, and it announces the new era with a funeral toll: a 2,000-pound bronze bell cast by John Taylor & Co in Loughborough. Tony Platt captured it with Ronnie Lane's mobile studio parked inside the foundry, once the band had wrapped tracking at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas.

Then Angus and Malcolm Young creep in with a riff that circles like a vulture, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd settle into a slow, heavy stride, and Brian Johnson, stepping into Scott's shoes, rasps over the top like a man with nothing to lose. Mutt Lange produced it, and it went out as the album's second single on October 31, 1980, a Halloween release if ever there was one. The Guardian later ranked it sixth among the band's 40 greatest songs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.