10 Perfect 1980s Hard Rock Albums With No Bad Songs
3. 1984 - Van Halen
Yeah.... remember just one entry ago when I was talking about Bon Jovi becoming the major player of hair metal? Well, turns out we actually need to take a trip back to the '70s to get the full story. As the Sunset Strip was getting born, Van Halen poured gasoline on the fire with their hard partying ways and killer songs. Once MTV really kicked into high gear, they aimed for even greater success on 1984.
If you knew the ins and outs of this record though, you would think that it would have been a disaster. Since Eddie wanted to branch out and play more keyboards on the record, he put his creative foot down and made sure David Lee Roth went along with the program, which caused a lot of tension in the studio. We didn't have to worry about anything though, with songs like Jump and Panama becoming some of the biggest songs of their entire career.
There are even moments on this record where the keyboards actually work in the VH context, like the spooky backing track of I'll Wait. And once you hear the intense opening of Hot For Teacher, chances are you never really forget it. With almost a decade under their belt at this point, 1984 was more or less a reminder that Van Halen were still gods in the music scene.