Musically, those early Van Halen records aren’t the heaviest things in the world. finally signed Van Halen in 1978, and the band became huge almost immediatley. (Kiss’ highest-charting single, 1976’s “ Beth,” peaked at #7. After seeing one of Van Halen’s club shows, Gene Simmons from Kiss produced a demo for them. They’d pass out flyers at high schools, a strategy that worked beautifully even though it’d probably get them arrested today. Upon learning that there was another band called Genesis - one that will eventually appear in this column - they changed their name, first to Mammoth and then to Van Halen.įor years, Van Halen built up a huge reputation as a nightclub band in Southern California - first in Pasadena and then, eventually, on the Sunset Strip. They’d formed a band called Genesis in 1972, recruiting David Lee Roth as their singer because they didn’t want to keep paying him to rent a sound system. They started playing music together in the ’60s originally, Eddie was the drummer and Alex the guitarist. Eddie Van Halen and his brother Alex, both born in the Netherlands, had moved to Pasadena, California as kids. In 1984, Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth had been bandmates for more than a decade. Eddie wrote the “Jump” keyboard riff as early as 1981, but he had to build his own studio before he could convince Roth to write some lyrics and sing over it. But Van Halen singer David Lee Roth and regular producer Ted Templeman weren’t into the idea of those keyboards, and they kept shooting down Eddie’s ideas. When Eddie played the guitar solo in Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” one of the biggest hits of 1983, he got a firsthand look at how the combination of rock riffage and high-’80s studio-craft could smash through everything around it. He’d been both a classically trained pianist and a drummer before picking up the guitar in his teenage years, and he’d seen where popular music was moving. With “Jump,” that’s what they did.Įddie Van Halen had wanted to play keyboards for years. (Their highest-charting single before 1984, a 1982 cover of Roy Orbison’s 1964 chart-topper “ Oh, Pretty Woman” had peaked at #12.) It turned out that Van Halen only really needed to do one thing to cross over on the pop charts. They got rock-radio play, of course, and they were shameless enough to cover old hits whenever possible. Van Halen toured stadiums and provided a template for hundreds of bands who tried to master the same combination of outrageous theatricality and finger-tapping technical pyro.īut Van Halen had never been a presence on the pop charts. The band’s next four albums were all commercial destroyers even 1981’s Fair Warning, considered the flop of the band’s early years, still went double platinum. Their 1978 self-titled debut had sold 10 million copies, and it remained required listening for every shop-class hesher in America for years. In 1984, the world got a preview of what was coming.īefore 1984 (and 1984), Van Halen were already one of the biggest bands in the world. Plenty of the leading lights of the Sunset Strip scene made hits, and a few of them will appear in this column. There’s one big exception to that history: The late ’80s, when a whole wave of poodle-haired LA glam metal bands rode a glitzy MTV-backed wave - and a reaction against the British synthpoppers of the early ’80s - and briefly dominated the pop charts. Traditionally, hard rock bands sell albums and concert tickets and T-shirts, but they scare away pop-radio programmers convinced that they’ll turn off audiences and advertisers the first time a distorted guitar riff kicks in. (Nirvana, for instance, peaked at #6 with 1991’s “ Smells Like A Teen Spirit,” their only top-10 hit and another 10.) It’s sure as hell true now. It’s a 10.) It was true in the ’90s, when grunge had a huge cultural impact but barely dented the Hot 100. (1969’s “ Whole Lotta Love” peaked at #4. Even Led Zeppelin, the biggest and best band that the genre had to offer, only made the top 10 once. That was true in the ’60s and ’70s, when heavy metal was just coming into existence and when its heroes almost never got anywhere near #1. Historically, hard rock has had a tough time on the Billboard Hot 100. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |