1980 Rock Classic Named Among Greatest Guitar Riffs of All Time
The most iconic songs in rock n' roll history are bolstered by the greatest guitar riffs and solos of all time and AC/DC's Back in Black is no exception.
Guitar World ranked the rock classic as the No. 3 greatest guitar riff of all time, just behind Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train and the No. 1 song, Whole Lotta Love from Led Zeppelin.
"As Angus recalled: 'Malcolm's idea was that two of us were always a unit together. We worked as that one unit and tried to make it one big guitar.' And there is no better illustration of this than Back In Black – the title track from what became the biggest-selling rock album of all time," Guitar World wrote.
AC/DC Wanted 'Back in Black' to be 'As Live As Possible'
AC/DC's album, Back in Black was produced by the legendary Mutt Lange in just six weeks. Lange's "right hand-man" engineer Tony Platt, described the recording process to Premier Guitar.
"There was a definite focus to record Back In Black as basically and as live as possible," Platt said. "So all the songs were tracked with Angus and Malcolm, bass and drums. On a few occasions we may have dropped in a chord or so on a great take."
Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen called Back in Black "the ultimate rock song".
"It has that sexy groove that hardly any rock band could get close to, amazingly restrained, confident guitars that are pure rock, outrageous drums and a vocal meter that is almost a rap but very rock 'n' roll," he said. "And considering the song is based on a blues format, it's extremely original."
Back in Black remains the best-selling album of all time that never reached No. 1 in the American charts.
Related: 1980 Metal Hit Named Among Greatest Guitar Riffs of All Time
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 6:22 PM.