Top 5 Lead Singer Replacements

411 Music published "Top 5 Best Lead Singer Replacements". Not surprizingly, Brian is there. Here they are including the ranking that the critics gave. I say most of the rankings are too low within the top 5, but whatever. My own input, although I love Bon, listen to each guy's version of Ride On. Excellent tone, mood for both, but different.

5. AC/DC's Brian Johnson replaces Bon Scott: If it weren't for Johnson's addition to the band, they would've never become the monsters they now are. Just imagine a world without Back in Black! It's true that Scott's voice had a bluesy tone that topped Johnson's screech, but after Scott's death the band needed a guy who could sing the songs as well as get along with the band, and after almost 30 years of being together, one can only thank Johnson for getting along and singing his heart out night after night."

1. AC/DC's Brian Johnson replacing Bon Scott: Bon Scott was awesome and when he died AC/DC should have died with him. Instead the band found Brian Johnson and found more raw power. They found more commercial success as the first album with Johnson, Back in Black, is one of greatest selling rock albums ever. I am not saying Johnson is better than Scott, I'm saying he improved album sales.
5. AC/DC's Brian Johnson replaces Dave Evans and Bon Scott: No disrespect to Dave Evans or the late Bon Scott, but Brian Johnson has been the voice of AC/DC so long, I can't imagine any other vocalist at this point. When Bon Scott died in the same way as Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, instead of breaking up like Zeppelin, AC/DC enlisted the help of Johnson and made Back in Black –the second greatest selling album of all-time. Good choice. Nearly thirty years later, with a new album and a successful tour under the radar, they still have plenty of rock left to burn.
4. AC/DC's Brian Johnson replaces Bonn Scott: Let me begin by saying that I like Bonn Scott as a vocalist a bit more than Brian Johnson. It's VERY close, but Bonn wins by a dirty ball. Why is this one of the best vocal switches, though? If it were not for the fact that AC/DC went from a final Bon Scott album, Highway to Hell, to Brian's debut on Back in Black, I might not so readily proclaim this switch job as one of the best. But look at the two albums… I don't think many can argue that these aren't two of AC/DC's all-time best releases. Talk about an incredible recuperation after the huge setback of your lead vocalist dying. There're certainly strong similarities between the two singing styles. Yet you never got the sense that Brian was trying to copy Bon Scott. He came in with his own thing that simply fit like a glove. There's no denying that the first two releases with Brian as the new lead singer of AC/DC were quite strong. Some of the 80's releases that followed got a bit stale, but I'd mark that more as band stagnation as opposed to being the fault of Brian. We're talking AC/DC here… the formula won't change that much.
I will say, though, that with the band's later releases, not only were there longer intervals between those releases (perhaps indicating more craftsmanship going into them), but the sound got much more interesting. Brian at times would settle into some slower, bluesy numbers that were excellent. I'd rank "Boogeyman" up there with "Night Prowler." Or for energy, I'd match "T ‘N' T" with "Thunderstruck" in a heartbeat. And if you hate AC/DC, as some do, then all of that probably bored the hell out of you.