Maps of Music

1984 (1984)

Where the lyrics of 1984 take you, and where it was really made.

Much of this record was shaped in guitarist Eddie Van Halen's own home studio, where he started playing synthesizers while the boards were still being installed.

Key places

Eddie Van Halen's home studio 5150 (1984)

Recording site TRS Studios — Van Halen recorded 1984 at Eddie Van Halen's personal studio 5150, the first album the band made there. The point is placed at city-center level, so the exact building position is not fixed. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• 1984 is the sixth studio album by Van Halen, released January 9, 1984 by Warner Bros. Records
• It was the last studio album with David Lee Roth as lead singer until A Different Kind of Truth (2012)
• Roth left the band in 1985 over creative differences
• 1984 and the self-titled debut are the band's two best-selling records, each with more than 10 million copies sold in the US

Background

• The band wanted a break after the tour for Fair Warning
• The label asked for another album after the success of the A-side
• Diver Down was recorded in a matter of weeks
• Eddie Van Halen was unhappy with the concessions he had made on keyboards to Roth and producer Ted Templeman

Recording

• Eddie built his own studio and named it 5150
• The album became a compromise between keyboard-heavy songs and guitar-driven hard rock
• Recording took about three months, longer than most previous LPs
• Unreleased or renamed working titles include Baritone Slide, Lie to You and Ripley

Cover

• Art directed by Richard Seireeni and Pete Angelus
• Painted by graphic artist Margo Nahas
• The model was a child photographed holding a candy cigarette

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Van Halen was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972.
• The brothers Alex (b. 1953) and Eddie Van Halen (b. 1955) were born in Amsterdam, moved to Pasadena in 1962, and began playing together in the 1960s.
• The band went through the names Broken Combs, Trojan Rubber Co, Genesis, and Mammoth before becoming Van Halen in 1973.
• David Lee Roth joined as lead vocalist in 1972 and Michael Anthony joined on bass in 1974.

Members

• Eddie Van Halen (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Alex Van Halen (drums), David Lee Roth (lead vocals, 1974–1985), Michael Anthony (bass, 1974–2006).
• Sammy Hagar replaced Roth in 1985 and Gary Cherone replaced Hagar in 1996.
• Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie's son, replaced Anthony on bass in 2006.

Career

• The self-titled debut album (1978) reached No. 19 on the Billboard 200 and was later certified Diamond by the RIAA.
• The album 1984 (1984) produced 'Jump', the band's only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.
• With Hagar, the band released four U.S. number-one albums, including 5150 (1986) and OU812 (1988).
• Eddie Van Halen died of cancer on October 6, 2020; Wolfgang later confirmed the band had ended.
• The band has sold more than 80 million records worldwide.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Robert Christgau rated the album a B+, saying side one is pure 'up'
• Christgau found the pop move avoided fluff because the band were heavy, and schlock because they were built for speed
• Billboard called the album funnier and more versatile than most of their metal brethren, praising the production as typically strong
• J.D. Considine, writing for Rolling Stone, rated the album four out of five stars

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave an extremely positive retrospective review, stressing a greater emphasis on songwriting
• Martin C. Strong wrote in The Great Rock Discography (2004) that the album saw Van Halen tackling obligatory '80s experimentation
• Julian Cope described the record as curious

Records

• Peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and stayed there for five weeks, kept from the top by Thriller
• Certified Diamond by the RIAA in 1999 for ten million shipped copies in the US
• Ranked 81 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Eddie Van Halen used an Oberheim OB-Xa for most of the album, while I'll Wait used the newer Oberheim OB-8 during a repair
• Girl Gone Bad was recorded by Eddie in a hotel room closet so he would not wake his then-wife Valerie Bertinelli
• Margo Nahas was first asked for a cover of four chrome dancing women, but declined because of the creative difficulties
• The band used a painting of a putto smoking cigarettes after reviewing her work again
• Fans sent over 1 million postcards to MTV for the Lost Weekend contest, and Kurt Jeffries won a trip to Detroit to join the band

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

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