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<\/p>\nThe \u201cHighway to Hell\u201d album in 1979 made AC\/DC\u2019s one of the top hard-rock acts in the world.<\/p>\n
And Staten Island played a key role in the album\u2019s iconic artwork.<\/p>\n
AC\/DC were a hard-rocking quintet from Australia whose classic lineup featured Bon Scott on vocals, Angus Young on lead guitar, brother Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar, bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd.<\/p>\n
Scott was every inch the hard-partying and often-shirtless frontman while Angus Young was notable for wearing a schoolboy\u2019s uniform, including shorts, jacket and cap, on stage.<\/p>\n
The band had released five albums by the late 1970s and were poised to jump to the big leagues.<\/p>\n
The breakthrough album was \u201cHighway to Hell,\u201d the band\u2019s first to be produced by Robert John \u201cMutt\u201d Lange.<\/p>\n
In addition to the seminal title track, the album features classic AC\/DC songs like \u201cWalk All Over You,\u201d \u201cTouch Too Much,\u201d \u201cIf You Want Blood (You\u2019ve Got It)\u201d and \u201cNight Prowler.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Highway to Hell<\/p>\n
Lange was brought in to produce after AC\/DC sessions with Eddie Kramer, who had worked with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Kiss, fizzled out, according to \u201cAC\/DC: Maximum Rock and Roll\u201d by Murray Engleheart and Arnaud Durieux.<\/p>\n
The iconic cover photo for \u201cHighway to Hell,\u201d a group shot that features Angus Young sporting devil horns and a demonic pointed tail, was actually left over from the photo shoot for the band\u2019s previous studio album, \u201cPowerage.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the band still needed a back cover photo.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Staten Island came in.<\/p>\n
Engleheart and Durieux write that the initial cover concept was going to be an illustration depicting a battle of good versus evil, with the band cast as the nice guys.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe initial design bathed the band in an angelic white light on a lonely road at night, dead in the sites of a car driven by a demonic creature,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/p>\n
That \u201clonely road\u201d was the West Shore Expressway, which had been completed in 1976.<\/p>\n
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ac\/dc highway to hell<\/p>\n
The band rejected that initial cover concept as too arty, but the photo on the back of \u201cHighway to Hell\u201d came from that same nighttime shoot on the West Shore Expressway, \u201cwhich involved a location van, makeup people, the works,\u201d according to Engleheart and Durieux.<\/p>\n