1984 – Van Halen (1984)

August 15, 2025

Starting with the release of their self-titled debut in 1978, Van Halen began a meteoric rise to superstardom. Landing five consecutive hit records – including their most recent success, 1982’s Diver Down, which reached #3 on the Billboard 200 – the band basically had a blank check to do whatever they wanted next. The only issue with that, of course, was that the two alphas in the group had wildly different visions for the band’s future. Eddie Van Halen’s preference had been for darker rock songs – like “Unchained” and “Mean Street” from 1981’s Fair Warning – while David Lee Roth was focused on bringing a hard rock twist to pop songs from the 60s and 70s, including covers of Roy Orbison’s “(Oh) Pretty Woman,” the Kinks’ “Where Have All the Good Times Gone!,” and Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street” (which appeared alongside other covers on Diver Down). And as the tension continued to build between the two bandmates, it became clearer and clearer that the good times weren’t going to last for the Pasadena party boys.

Van Halen looking extremely sober backstage

After conceding to Roth’s demands on the prior release, Eddie was determined to make his own imprint on the band’s next recording. After getting to blend some synthesizers into their typically guitar-centric songs on Diver Down and working on the drum machine-heavy score for The Wild Life, Eddie knew that their next album was going to be a big departure from the sound that both diehard fans and casual mainstream listeners had grown accustomed to. So in Eddie’s brand new 5150 Studios, Van Halen recorded what would become their most successful album to date – the aptly named, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The record climbed all the way to #2 on the US pop chart, and included some of the signature hit singles that the band is still most known for to this day – “Jump” would reach #1; “Panama” and “I’ll Wait” would each reach #13; and despite only reaching #56, “Hot for Teacher” would become known for its wildly popular music video (directed by Roth himself). 

Although maintaining the hallmarks of what made Van Halen popular in the first place – Eddie’s signature shredding guitar sound, Roth’s life-of-the-party lyrics, and the Beach Boys-esque backing vocals provided by both Eddie and bassist Michael Anthony – this album does sound remarkably different from its predecessors. It becomes very clear that the listener isn’t going to be hearing what had become a typical Van Halen album from the very beginning – as the record kicks off with the synth instrumental intro of “1984,” which immediately leads into their all-time mega-hit, “Jump.” But just as a Van Halen originalist might be ready to throw the record into the trash, the band shows they haven’t abandoned their hard rock roots by following the synth-laced intro with the guitar-heavy, “Panama” (which sounds like it could have been included on their very first record). Eddie also shows that he isn’t just a one-trick pony with his guitar style, as the intro to “Top Jimmy” was a notable departure from his usual sound and received comparisons to the work of Talking Heads. But my personal favorite on the album comes with “I’ll Wait,” which was co-written about a Calvin Klein model by the dream team of Roth and Michael McDonald, and serves as perfect sister song to Steely Dan’s “Peg” (which features McDonald on backing vocals and also tells the story of a beautiful woman being photographed).

Dave and Eddie: The Toxic Twins

But despite all of the commercial and critical success gained by Nineteen Eighty-Four, the egos of Roth and Eddie would prove to be too much, and this would be the last record by the original lineup (until a comeback album that was released in 2012). Roth would go on to chase after his pop rendition dreams with his 1985 EP, Crazy from the Heat, which would feature covers that included “Just a Gigolo / I Ain’t Got Nobody” and the Beach Boys’ “California Girls,” and would end up at #15 on the Billboard 200. The Van Halen brothers and Michael Anthony, meanwhile, would go on to find a new lead singer who would take them to even higher highs than they had reached up until that point…which I’ll get to in the coming weeks. But to me, Nineteen Eighty-Four represents one of the great American rock bands at the absolute peak of their abilities – able to blend the hair metal that made them famous with the reality that the 80s was the decade of the synthesizer. Eddie’s seemingly impossible guitar solos and infectious synth riffs mixed with Roth’s pop sensibilities and general ridiculousness blended together to create one of the signature albums of the entire decade – and one of my personal favorites of all time.