AC/DC released The Razors Edge in September 1990, with “Thunderstruck” opening an album made with producer Bruce Fairbairn and new drummer Chris Slade. Before the song reached a stage, it had already given Angus and Malcolm Young a standard to work toward for the rest of the record.
The song began with a guitar idea Angus played for Malcolm, who answered with a rhythm part to support it. In the album’s 2003 reissue liner notes, Angus recalled that the brothers spent several months developing those pieces before the arrangement came together. The title followed their search for a word that suggested the power associated with AC/DC. Malcolm remembered recognizing the song’s potential early. “And that set the standard for that album,” he told Guitar World in an interview published in April 2003.
The brothers also took on more of the writing themselves. Brian Johnson stepped back from his role as lyricist, leaving Angus and Malcolm responsible for all 12 songs. Johnson remained the vocalist, with Cliff Williams on bass and Slade taking over the drums after Simon Wright’s departure. The sessions at Little Mountain Sound in Vancouver put that revised lineup to work with Fairbairn and engineer and mixer Mike Fraser.
For Slade, getting into the band had been less reassuring than the eventual job offer suggested. Recalling his 1989 audition in a 2018 interview with Eonmusic, he said he drove home convinced he had played badly. He was so preoccupied with what had gone wrong that he lost his way. By the time he arrived, AC/DC had already called his house to offer him the position.
Once recording began, Slade found himself working through repeated takes with the whole band. Johnson sang along as they played, and the drummer remembered spending days on “Thunderstruck,” much as they did with the other songs. The performances developed with everyone in the room, hearing and responding to one another on each pass.
Getting Johnson’s finished vocals right also meant revisiting some of the instrumental work. Fraser told MusicRadar in 2011 that certain keys were proving difficult for the singer. Lowering them sent Angus and Malcolm back to record their guitar parts again, and the process expanded until much of the music was being recut around the existing drum tracks. Fraser also recalled recording two additional songs. What began as an adjustment for the voice had consequences for the performances surrounding it.
The guitar setup remained familiar. Fraser recalled Angus using different Marshall heads for rhythm and lead parts, while Malcolm played through a Marshall bass head that gave his clean guitar sound substantial low end. The brothers arrived knowing how to get their own sounds, leaving Fraser with a clear direction for the mix.
Those songs soon took their place alongside the older material onstage. On August 17, 1991, AC/DC headlined Monsters of Rock at Castle Donington for the third time, opening with “Thunderstruck.” “Fire Your Guns” and “Moneytalks” also appeared in the set, alongside “Back in Black” and “Highway to Hell.” The concert became Live at Donington, preserving Slade’s place in the band and three of the new album’s songs in the same performance.
