Today is the 43rd birthday of Angus Young, lead guitarist of AC/DC, probably the most popular heavy-metal band of the 1980s. Known for such classic rock anthems as "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," "Hell's Bells" and "You Shook Me All Night Long," AC/DC were formed in 1973 by Angus and his brother, fellow guitarist Malcolm Young. The Youngs remain the band's primary songwriters. They were born in Scotland but emigrated to Australia in 1963. Angus quit school at 15 to devote his energies to starting a rock band. AC/DC became popular in Australia early in their career with albums such as 1976's High Voltage and 1977's Let There Be Rock, but it took until 1979 to hit it big in America with their top-20 album Highway to Hell.

Angus earned a reputation for spasmodic onstage body language and for wearing a schoolboy uniform in concert. He is also known for mooning the audience and for singing songs about sex, drugs and drinking. Within a few months of the success of Highway to Hell, lead singer Bon Scott choked to death on his own vomit; he was replaced by Brian Johnson, who sang on the band's best-selling album to date, 1980's Back In Black, which made AC/DC international superstars. Few hard-rock bands from the '80s have survived as long as AC/DC. Their most recent effort was 1995's Ballbreaker. The band, still together, recently released a boxed set entitled Bonfire. AC/DC are scheduled to record their next album in the fall for an early winter 1998 release.

Other birthdays: Shirley Jones (Partridge Family), 64; Herb Alpert, 63; Mick Ralphs (Mott the Hoople), 54; Al Goodman (The Moments/Ray, Goodman & Brown), 51; Thijs Van Leer (Focus), 50; Sean Hopper (Huey Lewis and the News), 45; Pat McGlynn (Bay City Rollers), 40; and Robert Holmes ('Til Tuesday), 39.