Technically the band's third studio album, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap is a no-nonsense bar room rock album, full of vitality and illustrating the band's willingness to ignore then-current musical fashion and produce simply nine good-time rock and roll tracks. It was produced by Harry Vanda and George Young.

Songs like the title track and opener, "Love At First Feel," "Big Balls" and "Ride On" leave little to the imagination and merely serve to confirm any doubters that AC/DC do not care what non-believers think about their material. The band had by the album's release created a fanatical following in their new base, the UK, where their arrival from their home in Australia coincided with the punk rock explosion, and while AC/DC were not punk, their hard, fast, loud music enabled them to ride the shirt tails of the movement, and outlast it. It is also a testament to the talents of frontman Bon Scott, whose vocals on the album are typically uncompromising.

The album was turned down by the US record company and was deprived of a US release until after Scott's death in 1980, when American fans had already heard the singer who had replaced him, ex-Geordie frontman Brian Johnson. The album eventually hit Number Three in the US in the spring of 1981, while it had reached Number 47 in the UK, some five years earlier.

- Hamish Champ, The 100 Best-Selling Albums of the 70s, 2004.

Bonus Reviews!

Previously only available in the U.S. as an import, this LP was recorded in 1976 with the lineup of Bon Scott, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Phil Rudd and Mark Evans. In most areas of the world, this was the multiplatinum group's second LP, yet it was never released here since Let There Be Rock was already completed. The material even back in '76 was intense hard rock-based but with a denser, less polished sheen. Best cuts: "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," "Love At First Feel," "Big Balls," "Squealer," "Problem Child.

- Billboard, 1981.

An odds-'n'-sods collection of earlier Bon Scott-era tracks, it's worth it alone for the unforgettable title track. * * *

- Tom Graves, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

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