Hard as a Rock

"Hard as a Rock"
Single by AC/DC
from the album Ballbreaker
B-side "Caught with Your Pants Down"
Released 17 September 1995
Format CD single, 7-inch single
Recorded 1994–1995
Genre Hard rock
Length 4:31
Label Elektra
Writer(s) Angus Young
Malcolm Young
Producer(s) Rick Rubin
AC/DC singles chronology
"Big Gun"
(1993)		 "Hard as a Rock"
(1996)		 "Hail Caesar"
(1996)

"Hard as a Rock" is a song and a single by the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It features as the first track on their album, Ballbreaker, released in 1995. It became their second No. 1 song on the Album Rock Tracks chart, following 1993's "Big Gun". Live performances are also included on three of AC/DC's live concert DVDs, No Bull (of which an audio version is found on the Australian tour edition of Stiff Upper Lip), Stiff Upper Lip Live and Live At The Circus Krone, which is featured in the Deluxe Edition of the 2009 boxset Backtracks. A live version recorded during the band's Stiff Upper Lip World Tour in 2001 at the Stade de France in Paris appears on the 2007 Plug Me In three-disc DVD. It's also featured on the 2012 film, Battleship.

Music video

The music video to this song was directed by David Mallet, and was set at the Bray Studios in Windsor, Berkshire. Lots of fans gathered to be a part of this video, and can be seen front of the stage, and also seen behind the bars which surrounds the stage the band plays on. Also, in the video, lead guitarist Angus Young is seen playing his Gibson SG on a wrecking ball, which destroys a building. Angus Young had stated in the documentary that he had a fear of heights when doing this before. The video can be seen on the 2000 DVD version of No Bull (which also includes the documentary on how the video was made) and the Backtracks box set.

Track listings

CD single
  1. "Hard as a Rock" – 4:30
  2. "Caught with Your Pants Down" – 4:14
7-inch single
  1. "Hard as a Rock" (LP version) – 4:30
  2. "Caught with Your Pants Down" (LP version) – 4:14

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1995) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart[1] 14
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart[1] 30
Finnish Singles Chart[1] 1
French SNEP Singles Chart[1] 26
German Singles Chart[2] 25
Irish Singles Chart[3] 28
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart[1] 16
Norwegian Singles Chart[1] 4
Swedish Singles Chart[1] 19
Swiss Singles Chart[1] 28
UK Singles Chart[4] 33
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks[5] 1
Preceded by
"Tuhat yötä" by Samuli Edelmann featuring Sani		 Finnish number-one single
38/1995–39/1995 		Succeeded by
"Man on the Edge" by Iron Maiden
Preceded by
"Tomorrow" by Silverchair		 Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks number-one single
14 October 1995 – 28 October 1995 		Succeeded by
"Name" by Goo Goo Dolls

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "Hard as a Rock", in various singles charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved 14 April 2009)
  2. ↑ German Singles Chart Musicline.de (Retrieved 14 April 2009)
  3. ↑ Irish Singles Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved 14 April 2009)
  4. ↑ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved 14 April 2009)
  5. ↑ Billboard allmusic.com (Retrieved 14 April 2009)

External links