Van Halen released what would become their most successful song, “Jump”, as the lead single from the album “1984”. The tune would top the Billboard Hot 100 on February 25th, 1984 and stay there for five weeks. Over the years, vocalist David Lee Roth has given various accounts of the meaning behind the lyrics, but he usually says they were inspired by a TV news story he saw where a man was about to commit suicide by jumping off a building.
Judas, that album was everywhere that year, and the year after. And it didn’t really fade for another one tbh.
For good reason! It’s one of the truly great rock albums, you can’t ignore it. But, holy shit did the vinyl I had back then take a beating! I was about 10 when I got the album, so some of that was just me not knowing how to treat a record. But a lot more was just taking it anywhere and everywhere I went that I knew would have a player I could con someone into playing it on.
And the fucking roller rink? They got so much mileage out of Jump. They’d play it three or four times a night when it was at its peak.
Panama was another one that got just infinite play time. Maybe even more than Jump.
Hell, I had a copy, my mom had a copy, and we both wore ours out.
