“That’s just not fair”: the one vocalist Brian Johnson thought was just too beautiful
He might not have the vocal range of an Aretha Franklin or Whitney Houston, but AC/DC’s Brian Johnson does boast one of the most instantly recognisable voices in all of rock and roll. Even still, there are certain vocalists that the Gateshead-born performer cannot help but stand in utter awe of.
Johnson arrived in the hard rock realm of AC/DC with a nearly impossible task to pull off. Following the death of Bon Scott in 1980, there was some doubt that the Australian outfit would ever really be the same again. After all, few groups can survive the loss of their frontman, particularly if that frontman is as unique and beloved as Scott was. After trying and failing to recruit the likes of Iggy Pop and Noddy Holder, among various others, the mantle fell to Johnson.
Nevertheless, the singer’s introduction on ‘Back in Black’ quickly became one of the band’s defining moments, ushering in an entirely new age of the band with Johnson’s endearingly strained, raspy vocals at the forefront.
Given that distinctive, inherently rock and roll vocal style, though, Johnson’s own music taste is much more classical in its approach to singing, with the hard rock frontman being outspoken about his adoration for the likes of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Roy Orbison.
Much like Johnson, Orbison boasts one of the most recognisable, distinctive voices in music history. With his endlessly emotive booming tenor style, the voice of the rockabilly pioneer is enough to break even the most hardened of hard rock spirits, including the AC/DC frontman. During a 2022 appearance on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Tracks of My Years’, in fact, he cited Orbison’s 1963 track ‘In Dreams’ as one of his all-time favourites.
“Roy Orbison is an enigma to me,” the singer declared. “I mean, he is a man who sings and doesn’t move his mouth.” Expanding upon his adoration for ‘In Dreams’, he continued, “That song, first of all, it’s just absolutely beautiful. It builds, and it builds, and it builds until you can’t go any higher, and he does. ‘That’s just not fair,” he laughed.
Seemingly, Johnson’s lasting appreciation for the vocalist meant that he was hard-pressed to pick just one track. “I gotta tell you, it was very difficult to pick a song by Roy Orbison, [there] are so many fabulous ones,” he said. “But ‘In Dreams’, it was just so pure.”
Orbison’s operatic ode to heartbreak probably first arrived on Johnson’s radar back in 1963, when it spent five months on the UK singles chart, during which time the vocalist was touring around the nation alongside The Beatles – a tour that has since become the envy of music fans across the globe. Meanwhile, in Orbison’s native US, the song earned him a well-deserved top-ten single.
On first glance, ‘In Dreams’ might be a rather strange song for Johnson to select. After all, it is about as far away from the adrenaline rush of ‘Back In Black’ or any number of hard rock classics the vocalist has performed on during his days with AC/DC. Then again, the sheer power of Roy Orbison’s vocals seems to know no bounds, affecting every corner of the rock and roll landscape with his incredible tones.
