"Thunderstruck" is a song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released as the lead single from their twelfth studio album The Razors Edge (1990). It peaked at 4 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, No. 1 in Finland, and No. 5 on the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. In 2010, "Thunderstruck" topped Triple M Melbourne's Ultimate 500 Rock Countdown in Australia. It is one of the best-selling singles of all time with over 15 million units sold.
Angus Young stated in the liner notes of the 2003 re-release of The Razors Edge:
The song has sold over a million digital copies since it became available for digital download.
In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the "most Australian" songs of all time, "Thunderstruck" was ranked No. 8.
"Thunderstruck" is widely considered one of the band's best songs. In 2020, The Guardian ranked the song number eight on its list of the 40 greatest AC/DC songs, and in 2021, the British rock magazine Kerrang! ranked the song number six on its list of the 20 greatest AC/DC songs. In 2025 the song was voted 13 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of Australian Songs.
The video which accompanied the single, directed by David Mallet, was filmed at London's Brixton Academy on 1990. The audience members were given free T-shirts with the words "AC/DC â I was Thunderstruck" on the front and the date on the back, and these T-shirts were worn by the entire audience throughout the filming of the video.
Music By, Lyrics By â Angus Young, Malcolm Young
!scope="col" colspan="3"| Ringtones |-
The track is a popular song to learn among beginning guitarists. Writing for WRKR in 2025, Joe Davita expressed resentment towards children who play the riff in music stores, such as Guitar Center. He said: "You've probably heard AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck' so many times that you change the station whenever it comes on the radio. Nothing against it, it's a monster song, but unless Angus Young is playing that riff, nobody needs to hear it, not even from you, kid who plays it pretty well." He included the song on his list of the "10 Worst Guitar Center Songs Ever".
The song was reportedly used as part of the payload of a computer virus which attacked the Iranian nuclear program in 2012. In an email sent to Finnish computer security expert, Mikko Hyppönen of F-Secure, one of the scientists involved in the nuclear program was quoted as saying:
In 2025, it was revealed that the US Department of Agriculture in Oregon was using drones playing the song to deter wolves from attacking livestock.