10 Most Iconic Keyboard Songs In Rock Music

A lot of hardened rock fans tend to remember this song as the moment that Van Halen sold out. For all of the wild and crazy sounds that Eddie was making on his guitar at the time, it stung a little bit to see him put it down and get behind the piano instead on a good chunk of 1984. There was still that trademark Van Halen intensity though... it was just with a different canvas this time.

Before Jump had even come out though, Eddie was already flirting with keyboards on albums like Women and Children First on the song And the Cradle Will Rock, so seeing him playing something like this wasn't completely out of the blue. What really threw us for a loop was how poppy the song sounded, having that same pedal in the bass and ramping it up with little touches of electric guitar here and there. Aside from the piano part, you start to forget that this entire song seems to change genres a few separate times because of what Eddie can do.

While the chorus might be pure pop, the pre chorus has that signature Van Halen swagger in the guitar playing, only for them to change things up on us again during the solo, which is basically Eddie shredding on his six string over a track that feels like the beginnings of EDM music today. Van Halen may not have been exactly straight ahead rock on this song, but that's not because of selling out. Rock can be confining sometimes, and Eddie just found some new genres to play with.