1984 (Van Halen Album) - Singles

Singles

1984 features Van Halen's most prominent use of keyboards to date, particularly on the album's first two hit singles "Jump" and "I'll Wait", as well as the album's one-minute synthesizer and effects instrumental, "1984", (which had been previously incorporated into bassist Michael Anthony's solo on Van Halen's 1982 world tour.)

The summer saw the release of the album's third single "Panama", which featured a heavy guitar riff reminiscent of Van Halen's earlier work (the engine noise was from Eddie revving up his Lamborghini, with microphones being used near the tailpipes). Later, a video of "Hot for Teacher" was released and played regularly on MTV, giving the band a fourth hit which further sustained sales of the album. Other songs on 1984 included "Girl Gone Bad", parts of which previously had been played during the 1982 Tour amidst performances of "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" (most famously at the US Festival show), the hard rock "Drop Dead Legs" and "Top Jimmy", a tribute to James Paul Koncek of the band Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs. The album concludes with "House of Pain", a fiery, heavy metal song that dates back to the band's early club days of the mid-1970s. (A slightly different version of "House of Pain" was recorded by the band years prior to the album's released. The song was demoed when the band recorded material for Gene Simmons.)

During an interview for the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show in 1985, Eddie claimed to have written, "Girl Gone Bad" in a hotel room that he and Valerie Bertinelli had rented. Valerie was asleep, and Eddie woke up during the night with an idea, he had to put on tape. Not wanting to wake Valerie, Eddie grabbed a small cassette recorder and recorded himself playing guitar while in the closet.

Eddie Van Halen claims to have written the arrangement for "Jump" several years before 1984 was recorded - in a 1995 cover story in Rolling Stone, Eddie Van Halen claimed that Roth had rejected the now-famous synth riff for Jump for at least two years before agreeing to write lyrics to it. In his memoir Crazy From The Heat, Roth confirms Eddie's account, admitting a preference for Van Halen's guitar work; however, he claims to now enjoy the song. Additionally in his memoir, Roth writes that he wrote the now-famous lyrics to Jump after watching a man waffle as to whether to commit suicide by jumping off of a skyscraper.