Release
1984 peaked at #2 on the Billboard Magazine album charts, (behind Michael Jackson's Thriller, which featured an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo on "Beat It,) and remained there for 5 straight weeks. As previously noted, it contained the anthems "Jump", "Panama", "I'll Wait" and "Hot for Teacher". "Jump" reached #1 on Billboard's singles chart. 1984 is the second of two Van Halen albums to have achieved RIAA Diamond status, selling over ten million copies in the U.S. alone.
"Jump" was one of the most successful singles of 1984, spending 5 weeks at the Billboard's #1 position. It sold over three million copies alone, making it one of the four best-selling rock songs of the 1980s. "Jump" also charted on Billboard's Dance and R&B charts, exemplifying the song's crossover appeal.
The album's follow-up singles - the synth-driven "I'll Wait," and then perhaps the original Van Halen line-up's most straight-ahead rocker, "Panama", each peaked at Billboard #13, (Pop,) respectively, in March and June. "Hot for Teacher", a bombastic hard rock boogie, was a moderate Billboard Hot 100 success, reaching #56; however, the MTV video for "Hot For Teacher" became wildly popular, making it one of Van Halen's most well-known songs. The "Hot For Teacher" video stars pre-teen lookalikes of the four Van Halen band members; a prototypical nerd named "Waldo;" David Lee Roth as Waldo's bus driver; and numerous teachers stripping. "Jump;" "Panama;" and "Hot For Teacher" remain three of the most popular rock songs played at American arenas in the 2010s.
When Van Halen's 1984 was released in the UK, a removable sticker with the roman numerals MCMLXXXIV (which is "1984"), had to be placed over the cherub's hand, as it was holding a cigarette and there happened to be a non-smoking campaign happening at the time. The same protocol was upheld for several other bands' albums as well, such as the UK release of Canadian rocker Kim Mitchell's album Akimbo Alogo, where the entire cover was changed due to a smoking reference.
In the band's licensed game, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, three of the nine tracks of this album are available for play; "Jump," "Panama," and "Hot for Teacher."
Read more about this topic: 1984 (Van Halen album)
Famous quotes containing the word release:
“The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“The near touch of death may be a release into life; if only it will break the egoistic will, and release that other flow.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“As nature requires whirlwinds and cyclones to release its excessive force in a violent revolt against its own existence, so the spirit requires a demonic human being from time to time whose excessive strength rebels against the community of thought and the monotony of morality ... only by looking at those beyond its limits does humanity come to know its own utmost limits.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)