Best Van Halen ‘1984’ Song – Readers’ Poll

loading...

Jackpot! Not that there was anything wrong with Van Halen's first five albums -- at all -- but with '1984' they seemed to achieve a new level of widescreen majesty.

That, plus conquering MTV via an ever-more outrageous series of videos, turned their sixth album into quite the cultural landmark. As we all know, it would turn out to be Van Halen's last full-length record with original lead singer David Lee Roth for over two decades, but darn, what a way to go out!

The most obvious new change was the up-front addition of keyboards to the band's sound courtesy of the massive introductory hit single 'Jump' and its eventual follow-up 'I'll Wait.' (Although actually, the instrument can be heard on VH albums as far back as 'Women and Children First.')

But really, that's just part of the picture; later singles and album cuts such as the typically charging but somehow 'roided up 'Panama,' the strutting 'Drop Dead Legs' and the sinister 'House of Pain' showcased the band expanding the hard rock genre and operating at the absolute height of their powers.

We're going to have to cut ourselves short on this one. We couldn't possibly write less than five hundred words about how magical 'Hot for Teacher' is, for example, and we wouldn't be telling you anything didn't know. Nearly every other track on this incredible album holds up to that same standard. So, you tell us, which song on '1984' deserves the nod more than its brothers?