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With AC/DC releasing album Live At River Plate today, we asked a host of today's rockers to pick their favourite songs by Angus Young and co...

Scott Middleton, Cancer Bats - Jailbreak
"What a banger! From the incredible album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Jailbreak is quintessential AC/DC! My personal Favorite Bon Scott performance, his snarly and crass delivery fits one of AC/DC's heaviest riffs perfectly! The video has the band sledgehammering rocks in a quarry and it's a perfect analogy! The chorus is huge and impossple to not sing along to and I swear to God powerful riffs like the intro/verse riff of this song are what would lay the blueprint for metal anthems like Walk by Pantera 20 years later! The play off the lyrics spotlights/sirens/rifiles/firin' and Angus and Malcom Young's guitar foley work is fantastic, and tells the song's story with an incredible theatrical touch. Fantastic stuff!"

Matt Tuck, Bullet For My Valentine - Whole Lotta Rosie
"We covered Whole Lotta Rosie for Radio 1 a few weeks back. It's such a classic AC/DC song and it's unmistakeably Angus Young's guitar playing - pure, classic rock and roll. Plus the lyrics are just fantastic - the song is about an experience Bon Scott had with a slightly larger woman and how great a lover she was! This song absolutely rocks live and when they wheel out the giant Rosie model on their stadium tours it just completes the whole AC/DC spectacle. We chose this song because it's a rock staple - a massive chorus, guitar turned up to 11, and an epic solo."

Gareth "Snoz" Lawrence, The Blackout - You Shook Me All Night Long
"Even tho it isn't the normal harder AC/DC song, you shook me all night long is a massive favourite of mine because it is a massive groove! All their songs have the strut, which is a signature of theirs, but with this song being more upbeat, it has even more of a swagger than the others for me. The riff and vocals accompany each other so well, it's hard of to love this song. I always remember my brothers playing me this video when I was a kid, that they had recorded from headbangers ball, and thinking how the black and white part of the video looked like where I grew up, but the live part could never happen in quiet old Merthyr Tydfil!"

Andrew WK - Fly On The Wall
"I picked Fly On The Wall because it's the noisiest, rawest, and wildest sounding AC/DC song and album. It's also an extremely strange sounding piece of music, where the audio feels like rock and roll from another planet played through a cast-iron loud speaker, inside an empty concrete gymnasium swimming pool. Angus and Malcolm Young produced the album themselves, obviously using their control to take their sound as far over the top as possible. Every instrument is simultaneously louder than the last. The sounds clash and bash in a brutal, competitive way. Brian Johnson's vocals are distorted, contorted, and buried in torment, as his merely human voice strives to scream through the blazing guitar fire. The drum sound is so blown out and massive, it sounds like industrial sized steel shipping containers being dropped from helicopters. It's the sound of hell, if hell was actually heaven and made out of metal. The opening guitar riff clangs and then hangs in the air, like a call to arms. Brian Johnson responds with a guttural utterance so sinister and frightening, it sounds truly alien - somewhere between a hiss and a squeal - the kind of singing that goes beyond language and predates mankind's ability to shape and define vocalizations into meanings. Between that first riff and the primal scream, you get a foreboding sense of excitement - like this is going to be a very intense and very unsettling rock music experience. Indeed! From there, the song kicks into one of the greatest driving chord changes AC/DC ever recorded. The guitar chords hit on the snare drum beat, with a delightfully flipped emphasis and a huge sense of space, letting those wonderful distorted chords ring and fly like a supersonic jet. Fly On The Wall is also one of the only AC/DC songs to feature a truly notable signature bass move: a special chromatic three note climbing rotation that is probably my favourite part of the whole song. The transition from the first chorus into the second verse - where that great snare chord part restates itself - is one of the most exciting moments in life, full stop. It's as thrilling and orgasmic as life gets, and as exciting and life-affirming as any high your could ever have. Music is the best drug, and AC/DC prove it.

"I'm sure most musicians will agree, the influence AC/DC has goes beyond music and penetrates deep into life in general. At all times, there's a pulsing sense of possibility, excitement, and joy in the back of my mind, and it's from just knowing that something like AC/DC can even exist. Their music puts me in such a good mood that just thinking about the very idea of it makes me tingle with euphoria, let alone what it feels like to actually hear it or see them perform it live. AC/DC are a super phenomenon - they're one of the truly great achievements in human history, like the invention of the electric light bulb, microwave pizza, or video games. All you have to do is watch AC/DC's live concert footage from their Monsters of Rock show to realize how much joy they've brought to the people of this great planet. This is a shared accomplishment to be enjoyed not only by AC/DC, but by every single person that's ever believed in the relentless feeling of happiness and power that rock 'n' roll music creates. Their music is a reliable and fail-safe tool that all of us can use to hammer out the bad feelings in our lives. AC/DC magically makes everything better and more awesome about being alive. I love them very, very much."

Aaran Mackenzie, While She Sleeps - Sin City
"This is one of Sleeps favourite AC/DC tunes. A classic rock song that makes you want to nod your head with just the opening riff. By the time Bon Scotts trade mark screech hits your ears you know you're in for a good time. It has those quiet points in the song that only lead up to those hard rocking licks that makes AC/DC one of the greatest rock bands of our time. So crank it up to 11 guys and take a listen that won't disappoint!"

Simon Delaney, Don Broco - Back In Black
"I can still remember when I first heard the riff... I was 14 and had just started playing guitar. I wasn't having lessons or anything, my tuition came from my classmate Aaron who was an absolute shredder. I used to spend every lunch break at school in a small practice room learning the riffs Aaron would be playing. As is the case with most 14 year olds playing guitar, I was all Enter Sandman and Smoke On The Water... One day however, Aaron was playing something new. It was a riff that had flare, style, and yet was ultimately three chords and a cheeky little fill. Like all the best riffs, it was simple, straight up, and pure class. I instantly started jamming the riff with Aaron and was playing it for at least a week before I had even heard the song or knew who it was by... It was that good.

"When I actually heard the song for real - and the riff in context with the drums and bass around it, I was absolutely blown away. There was so much more to this band than just a kick-ass riff, the vocal was mind-blowing and the hooks were huge. When it comes to straight up rock music - it doesn't get better than this. As a guitarist I would be mad not to mention the guitar tone... It's what an electric guitar should sound like. If you look up electric guitar in the dictionary, you should be blasted with the riff from Back In Black - Angus just has an iconic tone and style which is absolutely timeless. Back In Black will always have a really special place in my heart as the song which got me into AC/DC."


Jona Weinhofen, Bring Me The Horizon Baby Please Don't Go (cover)
"AC/DC's rendition of blues song Baby Please Don't Go Is always a party favourite for us!. They managed to take an absolute classic rock song and improve on it tenfold! Bon's voice gives the track that extra grit and attitude, and Angus's trademark tapping and guitar solo in the extended middle eight are a brilliant addition making the song their own. Another highlight is the escalating buildup to closing out the song with that classic riff. Always kick off shuffle on the iPod with this ripper!"

Jenna McDougall, Tonight Alive - For Those About To Rock
"I dont think AC/DC could have been a bigger part of my childhood unless my Dad had actually been a member. He tested me on their discography, members names and song titles as if it were vital, general knowledge for a six year-old. I think the reason For Those About To Rock stands out to me is because of its empowering feel consistent throughout the music and vocals. I always found the contrast between the sense of doom in the guitar progression and the chorus lyric 'We Salute You' to be so powerful. Both Brian Johnson and Angus Young provided a lot of motivation for me to become a good musician from a really young age. I started playing guitar at 10 and all I wanted was a maroon Gibson SG but ended up with a sunburst Ashton instead (no complaints Mum and Dad, the Marshall amp made up for it). AC/DC made me proud to be Australian and to have Scottish heritage. Seeing them live in a football stadium in Sydney a couple of years ago really was the cherry on top of an upbringing on their music. In the chorus of 'For Those' they fired canons and it was just so appropriate."

Ben Jolliffe, Young Guns - Thunderstruck
"It's not easy trying to decide which AC/DC song is your favourite, but I'd have to go with Thunderstruck. There's no song in the world that has so much suspense and power. Gives me goosebumps every time. Personally AC/DC have been the biggest influence to me growing up, mainly because I know the band. My best friend since I was four years old is Ross Young (Malcolm's son). I've been lucky enough to travel parts of world with them to see there shows. They are genuinely the nicest guys and if it wasn't for that bands inspiration to me from so young i might not have started music. There's no better live band than AC/DC and to be hitting 60 and still play so hard for so long is incredible. The whole band came with me to the O2 arena a couple of years back to see them. After the show we partied with the guys from Top Gear backstage. Richard Hammond kicked the toilet door in on John as a laugh. Quite possibly one of the best night we've ever had."

For more on the new album head to Acdc.com.

11:08 AM | 19/11/2012