Rock Hard

"Rock Hard" is a single by the Beastie Boys, released by Def Jam Records on 12" in 1984.

This article is about the song by the Beastie Boys. For other uses, see Rock Hard (disambiguation).
"Rock Hard"
Single by Beastie Boys
Released1984
Recorded1984
GenreRap rock
Length4:55
LabelDef Jam
Songwriter(s)Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch, Rick Rubin, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson
Producer(s)Rick Rubin
Beastie Boys singles chronology
"Cooky Puss"
(1983)		 "Rock Hard"
(1984)		 "She's on It"
(1985)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Christgau's Record GuideB+[2]

The track contains samples from the AC/DC song "Back in Black", which was used without obtaining legal permission - thereby causing the record to be promptly withdrawn. Later, when the group planned to include the out-of-print song on their 1999 compilation, Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science, AC/DC refused to allow the sample to be used. Mike D spoke to AC/DC's Malcolm Young personally on the phone when their lawyers refused to clear the sample, and later said that "AC/DC could not get with the sample concept. They were just like, 'Nothing against you guys, but we just don't endorse sampling.'" Ad-Rock then added "So we told them that we don't endorse people playing guitars."[3]

The cover design is also famous for now being the official Def Jam records logo for vinyl releases; to this day, vinyl singles released by Def Jam have this design.

Def Jam included the song on their 1987 Kick It! TheDef Jam Sampler LP, released in Europe (Cat. No. KIKIT1).

Long removed from print, it was considered a rare collector's item until Def Jam reissued the single in Europe in 2007.[4]

Track listing
Side A
No.TitleLength
1."Rock Hard"4:55
2."Party's Gettin' Rough"5:58
Side B
No.TitleLength
1."Beastie Groove"3:37
2."Beastie Groove" (instrumental)3:37
Sample credits
gollark: Why?
gollark: If I'm killed, the emergency contingency systems will wake up a few billion mgollarks to take my place.
gollark: ↑ Macron interpreter (canonical)
gollark: ```pythoni = 0while True: for macron_char in input(): if macron_char in "<>+-.,[]": globals()[f"macro{i}"] = lambda x: x i += 1```
gollark: Observe.

References
  1. "Rock Hard - Beastie Boys" at AllMusic. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
  2. Christgau, Robert (1990). "B". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved August 16, 2020 – via robertchristgau.com.
  3. "AC/DC nix Beastie Boys sample" (LexisNexis Academic Search). New Musical Express. November 11, 1999. Retrieved February 15, 2007.
  4. "Rock Hard". Discography. Beastiemania.com. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
  5. "Illegal Art: Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age". illegal-art.org. About the exhibit. Archived from the original on 2007-02-12. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
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