AC/DC is rarely equated with love songs, but in the early 1970s they recorded a ballad, and it was one song guitarist Angus Young admitted he regrets ever releasing with the band. Recorded for the Australian version of the band’s 1975 debut High Voltage (later released in the U.S. in 1976) the track was a complete departure from AC/DC’s typical cranked-up riffs.
What’s more, the song, which was written by the AC/DC’s late vocalist Bon Scott, was called “Love Song.”
“On our first album, ‘High Voltage,’ we did a love song called ‘Love Song,” said Young in 2020. “That was very different for us. I didn’t know if we were trying to parody love songs of the time, because Bon [Scott] wrote the lyrics. I don’t even remember what the words are. I remember that song because the guy who worked for us at our record label told us that’s what was on the local radio at the time: ‘Very soft music.'”
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Young added, “His thought we should release that song because it’ll probably get some airplay. I remember thinking, ‘Who in their right mind would want this to go out?'”
‘I See Stars in the Sky’
Scott’s song was filled with lovelorn lyrics about a man pining for a woman named Jean. Within the song, he sees the sunrise and stars in the sky whenever she smiles.
I can tell by the look in your eye
I can tell by the way you sigh
That you know I’ve been thinking of you
And you know what I want to do
Oh Jean, oh Jean
Oh Jean, oh Jean
When you smile I see stars in the sky
When you smile I see sunrise
And I know you’ve been thinking of me
And I know how you want it to be
B-Side Savior: “Baby, Please Don’t Go”
“Love Song” never moved on the Australian charts, but fortunately for AC/DC, the band released it along with the B-Side cover of the blues standard “Baby, Please Dont’ Go,” which went to No. 10.
First popularized in 1935 by Delta blues musician Big Joe Williams, AC/DC had already started playing “Baby, Please Dont’ Go” live, shortly after drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Mark Evans joined the band.
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AC/DC even performed “Baby, Please Don’t Go” during one of their earlier television performances on the Australian music show Countdown in April 1975.
“We were very fortunate, though, because all of the radio stations who had seen us live knew this was not who we were,” said Young. “So these stations started to flip the record over and play the other song, which was a cover of a blues standard called ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go.’ We actually scored a hit from the B-side. That was the one saving grace of the song.”
Though “Baby, Please Don’t Go” was a hit and became part of the band’s live repertoire, AC/DC’s cover of the song never had an official release. It was later featured on the band’s 1984 compilation EP ’74 Jailbreak, a collection of five songs the band only released in Australia.
Photo: Fin Costello/Redferns
