| Shoot to Thrill | |
| Artist: | AC/DC |
| Album: | Back in Black |
| Released: | 25 July 1980 |
| Recorded: | April – May 1980 |
| Studio: | Compass Point (Nassau) |
| Genre: | Hard rock |
| Length: | 5:17 |
| Label: | |
| Producer: | Robert John "Mutt" Lange |
"Shoot to Thrill" is a song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It is the second track on the 1980 album Back in Black. This song is also the second track of AC/DC Live and AC/DC Live: 2 CD Collector's Edition, and is included on the Iron Man 2 soundtrack.[1] Although the studio version was never released as a single, the song is a fan favourite and a staple on classic rock radio stations.
On 26 January 2010, a new music video for "Shoot to Thrill" was released with exclusive footage from the film Iron Man 2. The live concert footage used in the video was filmed in December 2009 at a concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the Estadio Monumental, from which the Live at River Plate DVD was filmed.[1]
| Shoot to Thrill (live) | |
| Cover: | Acdc shoot to thrill live at river plate.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | AC/DC |
| Album: | Live at River Plate |
| B-Side: | War Machine (live) |
| Released: | 16 April 2011 |
| Recorded: | December 2009 |
| Venue: | River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires |
| Genre: | Hard rock |
| Length: | 5:47 |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Producer: | AC/DC |
| Prev Title: | Money Made |
| Prev Year: | 2009 |
| Next Title: | Play Ball |
| Next Year: | 2014 |
Several different live recordings of "Shoot to Thrill" have been released officially. One version, recorded from the Razors Edge World Tour, was released on the 1992 Live album. Another version, recorded from the 1991 Donington show, was released on the deluxe edition of the 2009 box set Backtracks. Another performance, recorded at River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires in December 2009, was released as a limited edition 7-inch single (backed with a live performance of "War Machine" from the aforementioned show) for Record Store Day 2011, promoting the live DVD Live at River Plate, which was released in May 2011.
When explaining his lyrical inspiration for the song, lead singer and then-songwriter Brian Johnson recalled reading a British article about a neighbourhood pusher who made daily rounds (almost like a milkman) throughout the London suburbs, selling narcotics to bored, lonely and depressed housewives. These substance-affected homemakers would then peruse the local clubs and bars, seeking out torrid, extra-marital relationships.
Lead guitarist Angus Young has commented that the song's "break-down", which occurs soon after the main solo (a muted and repeating three chord sequence of A Major triad, G Major triad, and a D power chord leading up to a bombastic outro-solo), was inspired by the trio gun-battle climax from Sergio Leone's classic, Italian western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In this seminal scene, gun-fighters Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach stare one another down in the centre of a Civil-War cemetery for minutes-on-end to an eventual shoot-out. Young said this sequence in the song was designed to mirror the actual soundtrack selection "Il Triello" by composer Ennio Morricone. Both compositions feature a slow quiet build-up, increasing in tension to a thunderous, cataclysmic finale.
AC/DC
Production
| Chart (1981) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Top Tracks[2] | 60 | |
| Chart (2012) | Peak position | |
| US Billboard Hot Digital Songs | 75 |
The song has also been recorded by Halestorm on their EP Reanimate 2.0: The Covers.
This song has been used in several film and television programs including: