3 album covers in our archive
AC/DC is featured in Behind the Covers' archive with 3 album covers spanning the 1980s and 1970s. Released across Albert Productions / Atlantic Records and Atlantic Records labels, the artwork sits in the rock, metal, blues tradition. Each cover is documented in our archive with design notes covering photography, staged photography, fake blood, 1970s, hard rock, live album. Below you'll find the full story behind each AC/DC cover — designers, photographers, label history, and the visual choices that defined the release.
Cover evolution
AC/DC wanted Back in Black dressed in mourning for Bon Scott: an almost entirely black sleeve with little more than the band's logo and album title. Atlantic resisted the severity of the idea, and a thin grey outline around the AC/DC logo became the compromise. Bob Defrin handled the original album art direction.
One man wears devil horns and a smirk while four bandmates crowd around him, and a single red tail curls up from the bottom of the frame. This is AC/DC on the last cover they would ever share with Bon Scott, shot by Jim Houghton in 1979.
AC/DC's first live album got a cover as violent and theatrical as the band itself: Angus Young appears to have been run through by his own guitar while Bon Scott grins behind him. Art director Bob Defrin conceived the stunt, photographer Jim Houghton shot it, and gallons of fake blood turned a backstage gag into one of the band's most memorable sleeves.
