The 1979 song AC/DC never wanted to release: “They thought it was too poppy”
Most people picking up an AC/DC tend to know what they’re getting themselves into.
The band have never strayed that far away from their typical formula, and when the Young brothers have written that many great riffs, they don’t really need to, either. That consistency became both the band’s greatest strength and one of the most common criticisms levelled against them. AC/DC rarely chased reinvention, instead refining the same hard rock formula until it became instantly recognisable worldwide.
That doesn’t mean they don’t have certain opinions about their body of work, and producer Mutt Lange had to beg them to include the song ‘Touch Too Much’ on Highway to Hell.
Lange’s arrival marked a significant turning point for the band sonically. While AC/DC already possessed raw power and chemistry, Lange pushed them toward tighter arrangements and more polished songwriting structures without sacrificing their edge.
Before he went on to be one of the biggest producers in the world, Lange had to be put through his paces when working with the Australian rockers. He already knew how to get the layered sounds many people loved after working with Foreigner, but AC/DC isn’t that kind of band. They’re a group that lives and dies on their live performance, and it was al
Then again, Lange couldn’t have picked a better time to jump on the bandwagon. They had already come off releasing albums like Powerage, and their sound had finally developed into some of the most intense rock and roll ever created. Considering how much fury they had, ‘Touch Too Much’ is actually a lot slower than you’d expect.
AC/DC were never exactly Ramones-level fast in that respect, but this bluesy tune felt more reminiscent of their early days, almost a slightly faster version of what they were doing on songs like ‘The Jack’. Since it fell into that weird dead zone of being middle-tempo, the group didn’t want to release it at all.
When talking to Lange later, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott remembered just how much the band resisted putting the song on Highway to Hell, telling Classic Rock, “It’s funny because as Mutt said to me later, AC/DC couldn’t stand ‘Touch Too Much’. They thought it was too poppy, but I thought it was the best song on the album”.
While that kind of tempo lends itself to being played on the radio, this still isn’t like AC/DC going Top 40 all of a sudden. If anything, it just helps reinforce the power of the rest of the tracks alongside it. ‘Touch Too Much’ is far from the most intense thing they had ever done, but sometimes you need a breather like that to truly appreciate something as fast as ‘Beating Around the Bush’.
It’s also fitting that this would be one of the favourites of Elliott, considering that a lot of Def Leppard’s early licks seem to have Young’s fingerprints all over them. The hard rockers from Sheffield were definitely in their own lane, but when you listen to half of High ‘N’ Dry, they inherited some of Lange’s signature ear for guitar licks, especially on songs like ‘Let It Go’ and ‘You Got Me Runnin’.
And it’s not like AC/DC were trying to avoid the spotlight. Just one album later, after Bon Scott’s death, tracks like ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ felt like they were meant to be all over pop radio, almost like they were cramming in hooks every couple of seconds. ‘Touch Too Much’ may not be the most fondly remembered song on Highway to Hell, but considering that the band would move in a more mainstream direction later, it’s honestly a trailblazer for their sound.
In retrospect, ‘Touch Too Much’ feels like an important bridge between two eras of the band. It retained the swagger and grit of the Bon Scott years while hinting at the cleaner, more anthemic direction AC/DC would soon embrace globally.
