Although the American branch of Atlantic Records had rejected the group's 1976 LP Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, it now believed the band was poised to strike it big in the States if only they would work with a producer who could give them a radio-friendly sound.

[8]The producer Atlantic paired the band with was South African-born Eddie Kramer, best known for his pioneering work as engineer for Jimi Hendrix but also for mega-bands Led Zeppelin and Kiss.

Former AC/DC manager Michael Browning recalls in the 1994 book Highway to Hell: The Life and Times of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott, "I got a phone call from Malcolm in Florida, to say, 'This guy's hopeless, do something, he's trying to talk us into recording that Spencer Davis song,' 'Gimme Some Lovin',' 'I'm a Man,' whatever it was.

[14] In 1979, singer Bon Scott told Rock Australia Magazine, "Three weeks in Miami and we hadn't written a thing with Kramer.

The band had also signed up with new management, firing Michael Browning and hiring Peter Mensch, an aggressive American who had helped develop the careers of Aerosmith and Ted Nugent.

This process was a culture shock to the band, who had grown used to spending about three weeks or so on an album, not the exhausting three-month period they spent on Highway to Hell.

From the outset, Atlantic Records hated the idea of using the song as the album title, with Angus later telling Guitar World's Alan Di Perna that, despite backlash, the name is meant to depict the experience of touring for the band.

Scott's death gave a new perspective to the lyrics of the album's title song, becoming more a representation of his life up to mortem.

[20] Scott's lyrics on Highway to Hell deal almost exclusively with lust ("Love Hungry Man", "Girls Got Rhythm"), sex ("Beating Around the Bush", "Touch Too Much", "Walk All Over You"), and partying on the town ("Get It Hot", "Shot Down in Flames").

In his 2006 band memoir, Murray Engelheart reveals that Scott felt the lyrics of songs like "Gone Shootin'" from the preceding Powerage were "simply too serious.

[citation needed] The final version was performed by Scott and AC/DC on the BBC music show Top of the Pops a few days before the singer's death in 1980.

[23] The opening guitar riff of "Beating Around the Bush" has been referred to by journalist Phil Sutcliffe as "almost a tribute ... a reflection, I hesitate to say a copy" of "Oh Well" by Fleetwood Mac.

", Angus replied: "There's a song on Highway to Hell called 'Love Hungry Man' which I must have written after a night of bad pizza – you can blame me for that.

"[27] "Night Prowler," the album's outro song, has gained a degree of infamy over the years, due to an alleged association with Los Angeles serial killer Richard Ramirez.

"If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" is featured in the films Empire Records (1995), The Longest Yard (2005), The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), Shoot 'Em Up (2007), and Final Destination 5 (2011).

"Touch Too Much" is featured on the soundtrack for the video game Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, and it was also the theme song for the World Wrestling Federation's SummerSlam event in 1998.

[39] Of the album, Greg Kot of Rolling Stone wrote: "The songs are more compact, the choruses fattened by rugby-team harmonies.

"[2] In a 2008 Rolling Stone cover story, David Fricke noted: "Superproducer 'Mutt' Lange sculpted AC/DC's rough-granite rock into chart-smart boogie on this album."