Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - The AC/DC Rule, Part 2
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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2021
⏱️ 73 minutes
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Summary
In Part 2 of this episode of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy continues to demonstrate a weird chart phenomenon he calls The AC/DC Rule.
Hit Parade episodes are now split into two parts, released two weeks apart. For the full episode right now, sign up for Slate Plus and you'll also get The Bridge, our Trivia show and bonus deep dive. Click here for more info.
What was the only No. 1 album by Jimi Hendrix? How about the first No. 1 by Billy Joel? Jackson Browne? Pat Benatar? Pearl Jam? Lady Gaga?
In all cases, the answer isn’t obvious—it’s not the album you know best, the one with the most hits on it. It’s the album after that classic that goes to No. 1. And there’s no better example than AC/DC, the Australian-by-way-of-Scotland hard rock band that’s sold more than 20 million copies of Back in Black. But it was their next album (can you name it?) that topped the Billboard album chart.
Just as less-good movie sequels open better at the box office than classic first installments, follow-up albums often chart higher than their slow-growing but hit-packed predecessors. Some of the rock and pop legends who fell prey to this chart phenomenon might surprise you…might just leave you shook all night long.
Podcast production by Asha Saluja.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening ad-free on Amazon Music. |
| 0:05.2 | Hello, Slate podcast listeners. |
| 0:07.9 | Help us make a better slate by answering our survey. |
| 0:11.6 | It'll only take a few minutes, and you can find it at slate.com slash survey. |
| 0:18.1 | Thanks. |
| 0:20.3 | Music slash survey. Thanks. |
| 0:34.5 | Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate Magazine, about the hits from coast to coast. |
| 0:36.1 | I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why is the song |
| 0:41.1 | number one series. |
| 0:42.8 | On our last episode, we talked about the ACDC rule, a concept I invented to explain why |
| 0:50.7 | follow-up albums open bigger or chart higher than their more beloved predecessors. |
| 0:56.6 | And I named it after ACDC, a band whose first ever number one LP was not as well-remembered |
| 1:04.5 | or strong-selling as its predecessor back in black. Now, let's apply the ACDC rule to a range of other acts across |
| 1:14.6 | chart history. In many cases, their top charting LP might surprise you. |
| 1:25.9 | There aren't many examples of the ACDC rule in the early years of the rock era. |
| 1:33.1 | The long playing album itself was a new medium in the 1950s, and even through the mid-60s, |
| 1:41.3 | singles generally sold better than LPs, So hit albums were driven by hit songs, |
| 1:48.0 | or even by a hit album cover. One of the most famous LP jackets of the period was trumpet |
| 1:55.0 | player Herb Alpert's smash 1965 LP with the Tijuana Brass, |
| 2:01.5 | whipped cream and other delights. |
| 2:09.8 | The album's sexy cover |
| 2:12.3 | of a seemingly nude model |
... |
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