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Rock 'n' Roll Train

song by AC/DC

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ2160601 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Rock 'n' Roll Train" is a song by the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It is the first track on the album Black Ice to receive radio airplay. The band released a 7-inch vinyl single that featured the song "Rock 'n' Roll Train" on Side A, and "War Machine" on Side B. The 7-inch single came in a sleeve with its own unique artwork. The 7-inch vinyl was also made available in the United States through some independent record shops.

As with the success of the Black Ice album, the single was released to huge success. It was used in many television advertisements, more often being used as ESPN sports bumpers. It hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, staying there for three weeks. The song was also the first by AC/DC to chart on Billboard Alternative Songs chart.

"Rock 'n Roll Train" has been a staple of the band's live concert performances since it was released in 2008 although it was removed from the setlist halfway during the Power Up Tour in 2025. Due to its popularity among fans, AC/DC has performed it over 250 times as of December 2024, making it one of the group's top thirty most-played pieces (above earlier released tracks with related titles such as "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" and "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation").

Editorial summary

“Rock 'n' Roll Train” enters the record as song by AC/DC. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rock, Roll and Train can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008, 2025, 2024—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2008-08-28. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Rock, Roll and Train.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Rock 'n' Roll Train” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Rock, Roll and Train provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2160601. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2025 and 2024.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rock 'n' Roll Train”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rock 'n' Roll Train primary sources, Rock 'n' Roll Train archive and Rock research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rock 'n' Roll Train”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Rock 'n' Roll Train” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.