Who is the best-selling Scottish musician of all time?
Calvin Harris, Lewis Capaldi, and Susan Boyle: what do they all have in common? They’re all Scottish and are some of the best-selling musicians of all time from Scotland.
While there is no denying that each of their achievements is seismic – Harris is the most successful Scottish artist of the century so far, and Su Bo had the fastest-selling debut album of all time in the UK – none of them, sadly, have ever quite reached the cream of the crop. Among the legions of the world’s best-selling artists, Scotland does fly its flag, and it’s in the form of AC/DC.
Many people, while familiar with the band but not so much their origins, may be surprised or confused to hear this. How can the rockers who are famously so painfully Australian actually constitute themselves as being from Scotland… Well, maybe it’s time that you could read and learn something about the Young brothers.
The sibling duo at the centre of the band, Angus and Malcolm Young, were actually born in the Cranhill housing estates to the north-east of Glasgow… It was the 1950s, times were tough, and poverty was high in the area, as well as unemployment – with Angus being born in 1955 and Malcolm being two years his senior, the pair spent the pivotal part of their childhoods in these seminal surroundings.
Because of this, with AC/DC being the 11th best-selling musical act to have ever existed, they should therefore have more than enough claim to being the most successful Scottish musicians of all time, too. After that, you’d have to fend off dubious competition from Rod Stewart in 17th position, in order to be the true king of Scots.
What did their Scottish origins mean to AC/DC?
As much as the Young brothers only spent seven and nine years, respectively, in their Scottish homeland before they emigrated to Australia with their family, the influence of their roots was something that remained just as important to them as the lessons they learned from Down Under. It is their real native origin, both physically and musically.
Indeed, the Scottish-Australian connection, although a world away from each other in geographical terms, was something that remained integral to the heart of AC/DC far beyond their first starting point, as when Bon Scott joined the band in 1974, he also brought a taste of home with him, having spent his early years in Angus and Kirriemuir.
With this in mind, Scotland has always been the stalwart spiritual home of AC/DC, no matter what far-flung corner of the world that their fame would end up taking them to. On their most recent Power Up tour, it was notable that their only UK date was in Edinburgh – it was paying homage to their heritage.
While the people of Scotland have often had to watch the success of AC/DC from afar, they have never failed or wavered in their pride for the band, knowing that they are heroes of the country as much as any other. The people will be eternally grateful that they are the best-selling Scottish act of all time.
