1984 (Van Halen album) Review

1984 is the sixth album by American hard rock band Van Halen. Arguably, 1984 is Van Halen's most popular album, and their final album featuring singer David Lee Roth, who left the band later in the year over escalating tensions between him and guitarist Eddie Van Halen, as well as Roth's desire to pursue a solo career. Roth also roundly criticized Van Halen's guest appearance on the Michael Jackson mega-hit, "Beat It". The public backbiting between Roth and Eddie Van Halen lasted for many years. When Roth released his Eat'em and Smile album, Van Halen released OU812, which is a quasi-phonetic "response" — "Oh, you ate one, too!"

1984 peaked at #2 on the Billboard Magazine album charts and contained the future classics, "Jump", "Panama", and "Hot for Teacher". "Jump" reached #1 on the magazine's singles chart.

Although known primarily as a guitar band, 1984 gave Eddie Van Halen, a classically-trained pianist, an opportunity to flex his keyboard skills like never before. Arguably, keyboards played more of a role on 1984 than on any other Van Halen album before or since, particularly on the song "I'll Wait" and intro track "1984".

Additionally, 1984 was the first Van Halen album to be recorded at Eddie Van Halen's home studio, 5150, which lent its name to their follow-up effort, their first album with former Montrose vocalist/guitarist and solo artist Sammy Hagar.

1984 is one of only two Van Halen albums that have sold over 10 million copies in the United States and it is considered a milestone in rock history. "Jump" was one of the biggest songs of 1984 and was on the ten most songs played on the radio that year. As a single, it sold over three million copies alone and was one of the biggest rock songs of that decade and is one of the biggest rock songs ever.

"Panama" was the third single from the album and was a huge hit that summer, reaching number 13 on the singles chart in June and was played a lot on radio that year. One of Van Halen's most well known songs, "Panama" was used as the opening theme for the U.S. release of the 2005 videogame Gran Turismo 4.

"I'll Wait" was another huge single which reached number 13 on the singles chart in March of 1984. "Hot for Teacher" was also a hit, reaching #56 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Other classic tracks on 1984 are "Girl Gone Bad" and "Top Jimmy." The album is finished off with the fast paced, hard-rocking song "House of Pain."

The title track is about a minute long, and was a song that showed Eddie's playing skills on the keyboard.