WHAT'S THAT SOUND?

Welcome to 1984: it was the album that would see Van Halen straddle the planet like a rock colossus, but it would also mark the end of the original line-up featuring charismatic talisman Dave Lee Roth. This is its story.

- Chris Gill

George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four envisioned a dystopian future where totalitarian governments ruled the world and the average person’s attempts to enjoy even the slightest personal

pleasure were patrolled and punished by the Thought Police in service of Big Brother. However, when humanity finally reached that symbolic year, the prevailing atmosphere was more of a hedonistic nonstop party than a period of peril. We have the power of the mighty Van Halen to thank for that.

Considered by many – including Eddie Van Halen himself – as the band’s masterpiece, 1984 was one of Van Halen’s best-selling albums and one of the best-selling rock albums of the eighties. It has earned RIAA Diamond certification for surpassing 10 million units sold – a feat the band only matched with their 1978 debut album, with the two perfectly bookending the beginning and end of Van Halen’s classic era with David Lee Roth fronting the band.

Clocking in at a lean 33:22 minutes, 1984 was, as the saying goes, all killer and no filler. Even the best-selling album of all-time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, can’t make that boast (does anyone even remember Baby Be Mine and The Lady in My Life?). 1984 produced an impressive string of four hit singles, with Jump delivering Van Halen’s only US No.1 charting hit single in the band’s career. Panama and I’ll Wait both peaked at No.13, and Hot For Teacher came in at a not-too-shabby No.56 in the Billboard chart. Even the album’s deep cuts – Top Jimmy, Drop Dead Legs, Girl Gone Bad and House Of Pain – were scorchers too hot for the Top 40, but found a welcoming home on more adventurous FM station playlists. The only outlier is the album’s title track, but