10 Rock Songs That Were A Nightmare To Make
3. Dancing in the Street - Van Halen
At the beginning of the '80s, Van Halen really felt beaten down by their record label. Ever since bursting onto the scene with their amazing debut record in 1978, these legends of hair metal had been on the road ever since, being on a constant cycle of recording and performing at every corner. Instead of taking a break though, the label pressure really shows on Diver Down.
When they were originally supposed to take a break from each other, a lot of this record was thrown together once their cover of Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman started storming the charts. Rather than just make another Van Halen record though, this is the culmination of a lot of odds and ends thrown together for an album, with Dancing in the Street being one of the dullest parts of the record.
Though Van Halen were always known for their impressive reinterpretations of classic pop and rock songs, David Lee Roth's insistence on covering the iconic song from Martha and the Vandellas really wasn't clicking with the Van Halen brothers, who were basically stiff-armed into making it to pad out the album. Before the decade was even over, Alex Van Halen had already washed his hands of the song, calling it one of the few out of place moments in their catalog. While the metalli-fied version of You Really Got Me may still hold up, this is one of those lowlights that is probably low for the right reasons.