AC/DC retiring today?

Right Now there's no disputing $27 million and 4 No. 1's. Didn't know that.

That being said ...

 

27 million units, not dollars

 

Does Rage Against The Machine Audioslave count?

 

Genesis has two Gabriel-era gold records -- its last two with him, "Selling England by the Pound" and "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway." Granted, they weren't certified gold until long after Gabriel left, but in those days they were way more popular in Europe than the U.S. At the time Gabriel left, it was an open question whether Genesis could actually replace him without embarrassing itself.

 

Iron Maiden had 2 gold records with Paul Di'Anno before Bruce Dickinson joined in '82.

 

Both of Black Sabbath's albums with Ronnie James Dio went gold, and one went platinum.

 

1984 never hit No. 1, but it was No. 2 for awhile behind a little album called "Thriller" It sold over 10 million copies.

 

I realize that, but my point was that to say Van Halen didn't have extended success with Hagar is preposterous.

 

Oh, I wasn't arguing... It's just AC/DC made the change without skipping a beat. You'll find people who prefer the Bon Scott years, but considering how well Back in Black sold, it's safe to say there wasn't much backlash to having a new lead singer.

Van Halen was a very different band with Hagar. I liked both versions, but I remember seeing Van Halen in concert in 1991 or 1992 and Hagar was singing Panama and Jump in concert and everybody looked at each other like, "What the fuck?"

AC/DC never had that issue.

 

I agree 100 percent.

 

1. Hagar had been in the band 6-7 years by that time, with three huge smash hit albums, if your friends hadn't gotten the message by then, it's like ... what the fuck?

2. AC/DC was not "worldwide big" when Bon Scott died; they were considered a relatively-obscure metal band with a handful of songs which got occasional late-night play on metal-oriented AOR stations (in the U.S. at least). When Scott died, it hardly shook the foundations of U.S. AOR stations to the core; it was mentioned briefly in passing a couple of times.

So when "Back in Black" hit big behind Johnson, it wasn't taken as a huge affront by a massive devoted fan base which swore eternal allegiance to Scott. Plus Scott's departure wasnt' a he-said/he-said pissing-match type thing where people had to choose sides, as the Roth/VH soap opera was. Plus of course Scott wasn't coming back, no matter what happened.