AC/DC Share Original Label-Rejected ‘Highway to Hell’ Album Cover
The artwork on AC/DC's Highway to Hell is iconic, but it was initially presented in a different, more Hell-worthy version that was rejected by the American branch of Atlantic Records. The band remembered how the album art was "shot down in flames" in a recent social media post.
This original cover art was only released in Australia at the time (1979) and featured the same photo of AC/DC as seen on the widely-released version of Highway to Hell. The difference was the fiery inferno that was laid over the band from their waists to their necks as a bass neck stretched outward, disappearing into the distance.
The band's logo is also a bit darker and the Highway to Hell title is written in yellow along the bottom of the bass neck.
See the post with the original artwork below as well as the widely-known version of Highway to Hell.
The record was the last to feature singer Bon Scott, who died in early 1980. It was also the first time the group worked with an outside producer, moving away from George Young and eventually to Mutt Lange.
Lange would go on to produced Back in Black, giving it a dominant and powerful sound that served as a hard rock production benchmark in the '80s. He'd later produce Def Leppard's mega-selling Hysteria.
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