On July 8, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the classic album as 26 times platinum for moving an equivalent of 26 million copies since its release in 1980. The last platinum certification for Back in Black was in December 2019 when the RIAA certified the album 25 times platinum.
With this latest certification, Back in Black is now tied with the Eagles’ Hotel California as the third-highest-selling album in history in the United States. The only two titles to top Back in Black and Hotel California are Michael Jackson’s Thriller (34 times platinum) and the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 (38 times platinum).
This list was put together by Flask & Barrel, who analyzed over 23,000 drinking playlists from Spotify. In total, over 2.5 million songs were featured among these playlists. Flask & Barrel noted regarding AC/DC, “Our favorite drinking songs from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are all by AC/DC.”
In fact, when Flask & Barrel broke these playlists down by genre, four AC/DC songs were featured in the rock top ten, when determining how many times a certain song appeared in one of the aforementioned playlists. The top ten is as follows:
10. Toto – “Africa” (379 playlist inclusions)
9. Journey – “Don’t Stop Believin’” (380 playlist inclusions)
8. AC/DC – “You Shook Me All Night Long (393 playlist inclusions)
7. Fleetwood Mac – “Dreams” (410 playlist inclusions)
6. Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Fortunate Son” (411 playlist inclusions)
5. Eagles – “Hotel California” (430 playlist inclusions)
4. AC/DC – “Back In Black” (447 playlist inclusions)
3. Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Sweet Home Alabama” (470 playlist inclusions)
2. AC/DC – “Highway to Hell” (477 playlist inclusions)
1. AC/DC – “Thunderstruck” (521 playlist inclusions)
“Thunderstruck” topping this list isn’t terribly surprising, especially for those familiar with the drinking game attached to it. For those not familiar, the game involves you and your friends in a circle. Whomever is the first player, they start drinking their drink when they hear the first utterance of “thunder.” When “thunder” or “thunderstruck” is next said, the current player stops drinking, and the next player starts, and this pattern continues for the whole song.
But Wait…AC/DC Topped Another List in This Playlist Analysis!
AC/DC also topped the list of favorite rock artists to drink to. That top ten list is as follows:
10. Green Day (2,332 playlist appearances)
9. Guns N’ Roses (2,451 playlist appearances)
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival (2,603 playlist appearances)
7. Led Zeppelin (2,713 playlist appearances)
6. Nirvana (2,788 playlist appearances)
5. Fleetwood Mac (2,864 playlist appearances)
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers (2,885 playlist appearances)
3. The Rolling Stones (3,242 playlist appearances)
2. Queen (3,512 playlist appearances)
1. AC/DC (4,143 playlist appearances)
