1984 (stylized as MCMLXXXIV on the album's front cover) is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen. Along with their debut, it is Van Halen's biggest-selling album, with 10 million copies shipped in the United States. 1984 reached number two on the Billboard 200 album chart and remained there for five weeks, behind Michael Jackson's Thriller (where Eddie Van Halen made a guest performance). It produced several memorable singles, including "Jump", Van Halen's only number one single on the Billboard Hot 100; the top-20 hits "Panama" and "I'll Wait"; and the MTV favorite "Hot for Teacher". 1984 was the last Van Halen album to feature lead singer David Lee Roth until 2012's A Different Kind of Truth, and the final full-length album with all four original members.
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.
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 his wife at the time 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, the guitarist 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.
Reviews for 1984 were generally favorable. Robert Christgau rated the album a B+. He explained that "Side one is pure up, and not only that, it sticks to the ears" and that "Van Halen's pop move avoids fluff because they're heavy and schlock because they're built for speed, finally creating an all-purpose mise-en-scene for Brother Eddie's hair-raising, stomach-churning chops." He also called side two "consolation for their loyal fans--a little sexism, a lot of pyrotechnics, and a standard HM bass attack on something called 'House of Pain'."
J.D. Considine, a reviewer for Rolling Stone, rated 1984 four out of five stars. He called it "the album that brings all of Van Halen's talent into focus." He stated that ""Jump" is not exactly the kind of song you'd expect from Van Halen", but that "once Alex Van Halen's drums kick in and singer David Lee Roth starts to unravel a typically convoluted story line, things start sounding a little more familiar". Although he mentioned "Jump"'s "suspended chords and a pedalpoint bass in a manner more suited to Asia", he went on to state that "Eddie Van Halen manages to expand his repertoire of hot licks, growls, screams and seemingly impossible runs to wilder frontiers than you could have imagined." He concluded that "what really makes this record work is the fact that Van Halen uses all this flash as a means to an end—driving the melody home—rather than as an end in itself" and that "despite all the bluster, Van Halen is one of the smartest, toughest bands in rock & roll. Believe me, that's no newspeak."
A retrospective review by AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine was extremely positive. He noted that the album caused "a hoopla that was a bit of a red herring since the band had been layering in synths since their third album, Women and Children First". He further stated that "Jump"'s "synths played a circular riff that wouldn't have sounded as overpowering on guitar", but that "the band didn't dispense with their signature monolithic, pulsating rock." He also stated that "where [previous] albums placed an emphasis on the band's attack, this places an emphasis on the songs, and they're uniformly terrific, the best set of original tunes Van Halen ever had." He concluded that "it's the best showcase of Van Halen's instrumental prowess as a band, the best showcase for Diamond Dave's glorious shtick, the best showcase for their songwriting, just their flat-out best album overall. [...] [T]here's no way Van Halen could have bettered this album with Dave around (and they didn't better it once Sammy [Hagar] joined, either)."
With 1984 some critics felt Van Halen reached the pinnacle of its commercial and critical success.
At the end of the 1980s, Rolling Stone, which had previously been critical of Van Halen, ranked 1984 at number 81 on its list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.
Track ListingThe 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.
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 his wife at the time 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, the guitarist 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.
Reviews for 1984 were generally favorable. Robert Christgau rated the album a B+. He explained that "Side one is pure up, and not only that, it sticks to the ears" and that "Van Halen's pop move avoids fluff because they're heavy and schlock because they're built for speed, finally creating an all-purpose mise-en-scene for Brother Eddie's hair-raising, stomach-churning chops." He also called side two "consolation for their loyal fans--a little sexism, a lot of pyrotechnics, and a standard HM bass attack on something called 'House of Pain'."
J.D. Considine, a reviewer for Rolling Stone, rated 1984 four out of five stars. He called it "the album that brings all of Van Halen's talent into focus." He stated that ""Jump" is not exactly the kind of song you'd expect from Van Halen", but that "once Alex Van Halen's drums kick in and singer David Lee Roth starts to unravel a typically convoluted story line, things start sounding a little more familiar". Although he mentioned "Jump"'s "suspended chords and a pedalpoint bass in a manner more suited to Asia", he went on to state that "Eddie Van Halen manages to expand his repertoire of hot licks, growls, screams and seemingly impossible runs to wilder frontiers than you could have imagined." He concluded that "what really makes this record work is the fact that Van Halen uses all this flash as a means to an end—driving the melody home—rather than as an end in itself" and that "despite all the bluster, Van Halen is one of the smartest, toughest bands in rock & roll. Believe me, that's no newspeak."
A retrospective review by AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine was extremely positive. He noted that the album caused "a hoopla that was a bit of a red herring since the band had been layering in synths since their third album, Women and Children First". He further stated that "Jump"'s "synths played a circular riff that wouldn't have sounded as overpowering on guitar", but that "the band didn't dispense with their signature monolithic, pulsating rock." He also stated that "where [previous] albums placed an emphasis on the band's attack, this places an emphasis on the songs, and they're uniformly terrific, the best set of original tunes Van Halen ever had." He concluded that "it's the best showcase of Van Halen's instrumental prowess as a band, the best showcase for Diamond Dave's glorious shtick, the best showcase for their songwriting, just their flat-out best album overall. [...] [T]here's no way Van Halen could have bettered this album with Dave around (and they didn't better it once Sammy [Hagar] joined, either)."
With 1984 some critics felt Van Halen reached the pinnacle of its commercial and critical success.
At the end of the 1980s, Rolling Stone, which had previously been critical of Van Halen, ranked 1984 at number 81 on its list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.
- 1984
- Jump
- Panama
- Top Jimmy
- Drop Dead Legs
- Hot for Teacher
- I'll Wait
- Girl Gone Bad
- House of Pain
Download Link
Van Halen - 1984
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