In 1981, AC/DC followed up Black In Black with an album considered to be their best… For Those About To Rock. This weekend, we’re celebrating its 40th anniversary with an AC/DC Weekend. But for now, For Those About To Rock. We Salute You with some facts about the album:

 1. It’s one of the best-selling albums of all time. Not even Back In Black hit #1 on the US albums chart, but For Those About To Rock topped the charts, and has sold around 50 million copies worldwide. This was the band’s first #1 album.

2. The title track was inspired by Roman gladiators, in a way. “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” is a play on words of “we who are about to die salute you,” which is what the gladiators would say before fighting to the death in the arena. Angus Young has said he got the idea after reading the book “Those About To Die” by Daniel Mannix, which was given to him by Bon Scott.

3. The band was frustrated with their producer Robert John Lange, who put their recording sessions on hold to test different studios and sounds. Angus Young explained in an interview, “We are always well prepared. We go in the studio with completed songs and we know what we want. We don’t f*** around much – unlike Mutt Lange. But that guy has always been slow. Real slow. He’d need forever to get anything done. Otherwise it would have been in and out in a week.” In 2004 it was mentioned in another interview with Mojo that Lange “was trying to outdo Back in Black for sound”.

4. The album gets a nod in the movie School of Rock. Jack Black a.k.a Dewey Finn, says to his class “In the words of AC/DC: We roll tonight … to the guitar bite … and for those about to rock … I salute you”.

5. The title of their song “C.O.D.” stands for “Care Of The Devil”. The track was meant to make fun of the band’s image and the rumours stating they were making “Satanic music” and corrupting young people.