In 1955, the greatest guitarist in the world would be born. But Angus Young wouldn't automatically reach superstardom, it would take a little help from his brothers. Angus and Malcolm were first introduced to the rock 'n' roll scene by their older brother George. He became a big Australian star in the mid-1960's with a group called the Easybeats. This left quite an impression on the two youngest brothers, for they too were learning to play guitars, getting pointers from George whenever he would come back home from a tour. They then went on to start their own bands.

Malcolm started a couple garage bands, but none of them went anywhere. In 1971 he joined a band called Velvet Underground. Angus on the other hand, started a band of his own, which he called Tantrum. The only gigs he played were school dances, though. Mostly Angus would just jam with his friends. It wasn't until 1973 when Angus and Malcolm would come together to form their own band.

AC/DC's debut came on New Year's Eve 1973 at a party in Sydney's Chequers nightclub. The bands first lineup was the following: Angus on lead guitar, Malcolm on rhythm guitar, Colin Burgess on drums, Larry Van Knedt on bass, and Dave Evans being the singer. This lineup was subject to many changes over the next year, however. First Colin Burgess was out, being replaced by Ron Carpenter. Then Larry Van Knedt was gone, and replaced by Rob Bailey. Carpenter didn't last long at all; he was replaced by Russell Coleman who was soon being replaced by Peter Clark

The Young-Young-Evans-Bailey-Clark was the lineup that gave AC/DC their first single, Can I Sit Next to You Girl / Rockin' In the Parlour . The next changes in the lineup proved to be the biggest though. The bands bus driver at the time, Bon Scott, informed the band that he could play drums and soon took over Peter Clarks's position. He also recommended Bruce Houwe, who used to play with Bon in Fraternity, as the new bass player replacing Bailey. It wasn't long before Angus and Malcolm grew tired of Dave Evans, because he was turning into a glittery glam rock type of person. So Evans was out, and Bon got the job as frontman for AC/DC. Before long Houwe was asked to leave and George Young would take over as bassist. AC/DC would soon record their debut album High Voltage .

AC/DC's debut album High Voltage was recorded in just 10 days. The lineup for the album was the normal Young-Young-Scott with George Young on bass and Tony Kerrante filling in on drums. The album was released in Australia in February of 1975. Soon after that the band got a settled in with a lineup when they hired Phil Rudd on drums and Mark Evans as bass to fill in the vacancies. The Young-Young-Scott-Evans-Rudd lineup went on to record three more albums in the next couple of years. T.N.T. was recorded in 1975. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap in 1976, and finally Let There be Rock in 1977. A personality clash arose in 1977 between Angus and Mark, and Mark finally decided to leave the band before they had a chance to fire him.

The band had little trouble finding a new bass player. They quickly hired Cliff Williams, who has been in the band ever since. This lineup, Young-Young-Scott-Williams-Rudd went on to record some of the best AC/DC albums ever. They included Powerage in 1978. Then came the live album If You Want Blood You've Got It which was recorded from tapes collected during different AC/DC concerts in 1978. Finally, this lineup recorded what is regarded as the best Bon Scott album, Highway to Hell in 1979. This brings us to the new decade.

AC/DC was just getting worldwide popularity when tragedy struck on February 19, 1980. AC/DC's frontman, Bon Scott, was found dead in the backseat of a friends car. In official AC/DC press releases it said that he died from natural causes, but he had been drinking quite heavily the night before and it is common knowledge now that Bon had died by passing out and choking on his own vomit. There is also some speculation that heroin might have been involved, but the true facts will never be known.

The next task for the band was to decide if they wanted to go on. Malcolm and Angus quickly decided that they did, and were looking for a new singer by mid-March. Their were many applicants for the job, but none of them seemed right for one reason or another. Finally, a 14 year old fan from Chicago sent a letter to AC/DC telling them about this singer Brian Johnson from the band Geordie and how great he would fit in with AC/DC. After reading that, Malcolm then recalled seeing Geordie play and how Bon had remarked that Brian Johnson was one of the best singers he had ever seen, so the band got a hold of Johnson, auditioned him, and hired him on the spot.

The bands next album, Back in Black , was a work of art. Bon already had 15 songs written for the album before his death, but these were abandoned, because the band felt that it wouldn't be right for Brian to be singing Bon's songs. So work got underway on new songs. Most of the songs ended up being written by Angus and Malcolm, but the rest of the band threw in some ideas. The album itself was finally released in July of 1980, with an all black cover as a tribute to Bon Scott. As it turned out that album has become the highest selling heavy metal album ever, with over 10 million sales.

AC/DC was definitely at its peak around 1981. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap was finally released in the U.S. in May of that year, and quickly became a success, even outselling Back in Black for a long stretch of time. They had finally hit superstardom.

The lineup that recorded Back in Black , Young-Young-Johnson-Williams-Rudd, went on to record two more albums. In late '81 they finished For Those About to Rock We Salute You , which by the way, is the only AC/DC album to hit number one on the Billboard charts. Then after a very lengthy world tour they recorded Flick of the Switch in 1983. This album was not done completely with Phil Rudd as drummer. From what I understand, Phil was heavily involved in drugs. It got to the point where he was hallucinating so badly that he was admitted to the hospital on more than one occasion. The straw that broke the camels back, however, was a fist fight between him and another band member that has never been revealed to the public, though it was probably Malcolm, since it was known that Phil had been involved with a female relation of Malcolm's. Flick of the Switch was finished with a studio drummer.

For the next drummer, AC/DC put out an advertisement in a heavy metal magazine, but they did not disclose the name of the band. So when Simon Wright, who was 20 years old at the time, showed up for the audition he was very surprised to find out he was auditioning for AC/DC. Nevertheless, they liked what they saw and hired him for their upcoming tour. After that, they recorded Fly on the Wall in 1985.
In 1986 they released Who Made Who , which is regarded by many as a kind of greatest hits album. In all actuality it is just a soundtrack for the Stephen King movie Maximum Overdrive . Even the songs were picked out by Stephen King, who is a big AC/DC fan as it turns out. Then in 1988, the Young-Young-Johnson-Williams-Wright lineup released Blow Up Your Video , which led to another drummer change.

This time the drummer left voluntarily. Simon Wright had always been huge fan of Dio, and when they found themselves without a drummer, Ronnie Dio asked Simon Wright if he wanted to join them. It didn't take him long to make his decision. The replacement this time was the veteran drummer Chris Slade who had previously played for Tom Jones, and more recently The Firm. Now the next album was The Razor's Edge which was recorded in 1990, which was more of a success than the disappointing Blow Up Your Video .

Up to this point the group had only released one live album, which was If You Want Blood You've Got It . So they decided it was time for another. So, in 1992 Live was released in both a single disc or double disc format, with the double disc version being aimed at more of the AC/DC collector than just the average listener.

This brings us up to 1995. It was announced early this year that Rudd was back in the lineup as the drummer for the much anticipated album. Ballbreaker , AC/DC's newest album, was released in September.