Talk:You Shook Me All Night Long

Title
Just a note. This song is not to be confused with Led Zeppelin's "You Shook Me" which also features the lyric "you shook me all night long". Is this a coincidence, lyrical plagiarism, a homage or what? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.107.206.148 (talk • contribs) 18:19, July 20, 2006 (UTC)

Regarding the title comment above and the general note of "you shook me (all night long)" being introduced by Zeppelin, the song You Shook Me was a cover originally written by Willie Dixon 65.24.246.184 (talk) 05:13, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Unspecified source for Image:ACDC Who Made Who.JPG
I found Image:ACDC Who Made Who.JPG and noticed that the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. Someone will need to specify the owner of the copyright. If it was obtained it from a website, then a link to the website from which it was taken, together with a restatement of that website's terms of use of its content, is usually sufficient information. However, if the copyright holder is different from the website's publisher, then their copyright should also be acknowledged.

As well as adding the source, please add a proper copyright licensing tag if the file doesn't have one already. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the GFDL-self-no-disclaimers tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media meets the criteria at Fair use, use a tag such as or one of the other tags listed at Image copyright tags. See Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If there are other files on this page, consider checking that they have specified their source and are tagged properly, too. Unsourced and untagged images may be deleted one week after they have been tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If the image is copyrighted under a non-free license (per Fair use) then the image will be deleted 48 hours after 04:29, 25 May 2007 (UTC). If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Betacommand (talk • contribs • Bot) 04:29, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:ACDC Who Made Who.JPG
Image:ACDC Who Made Who.JPG is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.Betacommand (talk • contribs • Bot) 04:29, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Another Cover
There's also a cover version from Six Feet Under. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.135.240.8 (talk) 20:24, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Music Video
Was the music video filmed in Sheffield, it sure looks like Sheffield anyway. Zolstijers (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 23:05, 29 January 2009 (UTC).

Who wrote the song
Writer Jesse Fink states in his book Bon, the last highway and in this article published the 17th October 2017 in The Sydney Morning Herald that the song's original lyrics might have been written by Bon Scott and then, after his death, reshaped by the Young brothers and Brian Johnson. Here's his explanation, talking about a past North American girlfriend of Scott's called Holly:

"I've questioned a couple of the songs that were on Back in Black. I really think Bon wrote those, like You Shook Me All Night Long. But he didn't get any credit. As always, quite possibly [he wrote them] in tandem with the Youngs but they are his ideas. I have one last thing to say about that song: the lyric is 'chartreuse eyes' not 'sightless eyes'."

She had the sightless eyes. On reflection, it's a line that makes no sense. Could it have been changed because no one in the band knew the meaning of chartreuse? Under the kitchen lights, Holly asks me to tell her if her eyes are chartreuse. They are. Most people don't know what chartreuse means. Had Bon penned lyrics to You Shook Me All Night Long, it doesn't seem completely implausible that the Youngs – Malcolm and Angus – and Brian Johnson might have changed Bon's original wording, not just to that song but to others on the album, wherein anything too clever or likely to go over the heads of fans was removed or modified. But they have always maintained their exclusive authorship of it and all the remaining tracks on Back in Black. According to them, Bon had no part to play at all apart from jamming on drums in rehearsals on barely formed song ideas that would later become Have a Drink on Me and Let Me Put My Love into You.

"A memory I have, which is so clear, is that Bon and I were sitting out in the sun behind the Newport Hotel [in Miami] and he turned to me – the sun was on my face – and he suddenly exclaimed, 'Your eyes are chartreuse!' I remember this vividly because I had no idea what colour 'chartreuse' was and immediately took it to be something bad, like bright pink or some ghastly colour. He referred to my eye colour by that word many times. -- — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.39.218.10 (talk) 13:43, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Can somebody please edit the main page to include the details of the song's authorship; ie, who actually wrote it. --Johnf888 (talk) 12:45, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

The song was not actually written by AC/DC, but by a different band altogether. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Levud (talk • contribs) 02:35, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

I edited the article again to remove Bon Scott as one of the songwriters in the infobox. Regardless of interviews with Bon's birds, there are official, legal writers of this song and he ain't one of them. DFS (talk) 17:53, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

That Controversy paragraph should be published in the article again. Bueller 007, who undid it, wrote: "not a controversy. no one knows about the claims in this little-known book and the author himself says there's no proof of it". That is wrong on many levels. First, there IS a controversy when it comes to who really wrote the lyrics, especially for Back in Black album, among the AC/DC fans. If you do not want to admit it, you are in denial of reality. Second, that book IS a bestseller and has been released in many countries and translated to many languages all over the world. You can look it up and count, it is not that hard to do such basic research, before you post such false claims. Third, the author of the book is well-known for his meticulous research and pedantry, besides that he is the author of other well received books, both by the readers and critics. So that makes him credible. Fourth, both of his AC/DC related books were recently translated and released in Japan - something that has never happened before when it comes to AC/DC bios. So, think again about that "little-known book" claim. If Wikipedia wants to be an objective source of information, that paragraph should be published again. Those claims were made by people who were there and spent time with Bon Scott and no one can deny that. Whether the readers will believe them or the official line is up to them. But for the sake of objectivity, those controversial claims should be published. Currentpeak (talk) 19:13, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Provide references. The existing section was an absolute joke.  It cites a little-known book, the little-known book cites hearsay, and one of the sources of the hearsay was a pseudonym.  Absolutely pathetic referencing.  Come up with a better source if you want to include this info.  If there is a "controversy" as you say, then it shouldn't be difficult to find a number of reliable sources to substantiate it. Bueller 007 (talk) 22:46, 25 October 2019 (UTC)


 * There's nothing wrong with using the book as a source – it's not "little known", and it wouldn't matter if it was. The problem is, as Bueller 007 says, what's being cited is hearsay, just some opinions from some not-terribly-reliable people. The fact they knew Scott well and spent time with him does not mean they know who wrote this song. I think this falls under Fringe theories unless there are a few more sources out there to corroborate it. Controversial stuff needs more than one source. Bretonbanquet (talk) 23:18, 25 October 2019 (UTC)


 * OK, here you are: First two are from Bon: The Last Highway book by Jesse Fink. (1) Silver Smith: ‘I know for sure that one was written at [my flat in] Gloucester Road [in Kensington, London] back in ’76. “She told me to come but I was already there” – he wrote that in a letter to somebody, one of his grotty mates, just after we got together, actually. He always kept notebooks and added and subtracted to them and so on. He put in “American thighs” even way back then, because that was the market they were going to try and crack. So that was written a long time ago.’ (2) Doug Thaler, Bon's friend and AC/DC's booking agent on their American tours: ‘I don’t care who tells me anything different: you can bet your life that Bon Scott wrote the lyrics to “You Shook Me All Night Long”. It’s Bon Scott’s lyrics all over the place.’ (3) From AC/DC: Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be book by Mick Wall: However, Malcolm Dome claims that shortly before he died, Bon ‘shoved me his book of lyrics. He had sheets of lyrics that he kept in a file, carried them around. He’d been showing me some of the ideas he’d been working for Back in Black. Not the song “Back in Black” but songs that were for the next album. There were a couple of lines, like, “She told me to come but I was already there”, which ended up in “You Shook Me All Night Long” - that’s a Bon lyric. And I saw it. I saw it written down. There were lyrics, lines used, on Back in Black that Bon wrote. [But] he wasn’t credited and to this day no one’s really sure what happened. I don’t think he even got close to finishing the whole songs. But there are lines in there that I know.’ (4) Malcolm Dome in Classic Rock, August 2005, pg. 46 (Back in Black: The Lyrical Debate): ‘Bon proudly showed me some of the scribbles he’d put down in preparation for an album he felt would define AC/DC - and open up new possibilities as well. It’s hard to be absolutely accurate from a distance of quarter of a century, and through the haze of alcohol which enveloped the night, but one line sticks in my mind as being on one of those sheets: “She told me to come, but I was already there.” A renowned lyric from the song You Shook Me All Night Long, it has Bon’s trademark all over it - a neatly worked double entendre that fits in with the track record of a man who wrote Big Balls, The Jack and other similarly styled songs.’ So there you have it - accounts of Bon's lover and woman who most probably had the biggest impact on him, AC/DC's American booking agent, and respected English music journalist, who actually been there when AC/DC played their first ever UK gig on 23 April 1976 at The Red Cow pub in Hammersmith. That should be enough to corroborate the controversy. Currentpeak (talk) 10:14, 27 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Apologies, I didn't see that you had posted here until you edited the article again. While I'm ok with a controversy section up to a point, particularly the input from Malcolm Dome (the only unbiased contributor you have), that's way too long. Nearly half the text of the entire article is about the claim that someone else might have written a small part of the lyrics. That's undue weight all day long. The lengthy quotes are too much, particularly from Smith, who is still a very shaky contributor. Three of those lengthy quotes are about the same line ("She told me to come but I was already there"), including two extremely similar quotes from Dome about that same line. It's overkill, by some way. I would suggest removing the Smith and Thaler quotes and just mentioning their names and relationships with Scott, with a cite, and also removing the first Dome quote, and cutting down the second Dome quote. "Bon proudly showed me some of the scribbles he’d put down in preparation for an album he felt would define AC/DC - and open up new possibilities as well. It’s hard to be absolutely accurate from a distance of quarter of a century, and through the haze of alcohol which enveloped the night, but one line sticks in my mind as being on one of those sheets: “She told me to come, but I was already there.”" will suffice, in my opinion. That sums up his point perfectly well.
 * It's worth noting that, as composition credits generally go, even if you add up everything these people say Scott wrote, it amounts to two or three lines and maybe a phrase or two. That probably wouldn't be enough to earn a songwriting credit in most bands anyway, let alone one as tight as AC/DC. Bretonbanquet (talk) 23:02, 4 November 2019 (UTC)


 * No worries! If you want to streamline the paragraph, go ahead. Just keep the original references, so those, who are interested, can look them up and read. It is always an endless and biased talk, who is and who is not (and all points in between) a credible source.
 * Composition credits is for another debate. It is all about who do you believe or not. There are several other songs on Back in Black album that have traces of Bon in lyrics. Not to mention that his estate allegedly gets 1/3rd of the songwriting royalties from the album and recently, there was a mention of Bon Scott Estate getting a percentage of songwriting royalties from For Those About to Rock album and even from Blow Up Your Video. Again, depends if you believe it or not. The point here was not to try to persuade anybody, but to state a fact, that there is a controversy around it. Currentpeak (talk) 13:04, 5 November 2019 (UTC)