I GET UP
AND NOTHING
GETS ME DOWN
YOU GOT IT TOUGH
I'VE SEEN THE
TOUGHEST AROUND
1984
(stylized in Roman numerals as MCMLXXXIV)
is the sixth
studio album
by American
rock band
released on
January 9, 1984,
by Warner Bros. Records.
It was the last
Van Halen album
to feature
lead singer
who left the band in 1985
following creative differences,
until
A Different Kind of Truth
(2012).
1984
and
Van Halen's
self-titled debut album
are the band's
best-selling albums,
each having
sold more than
10 million copies
in the United States.
1984
was well received
by music critics.
Rolling Stone
ranked the album
number 81
on its list of the
"100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s".
It reached number two
on the Billboard 200
and remained there
for five weeks,
kept off the top spot
by Michael Jackson's
Thriller,
on which guitarist
Eddie Van Halen
made a guest performance.
1984
produced four singles,
including
"Jump",
Van Halen's
only number-one single
on the
Billboard Hot 100;
the top-20 hits
"Panama"
and
"I'll Wait";
and the
MTV favorite
"Hot for Teacher".
The album was certified
Diamond
by the Recording
Industry Association
of America (RIAA)
in 1999
for ten million
shipped copies
in the U.S.
Background and Recording
Following the tour
in support of their
fourth studio album,
Fair Warning,
the band initially wanted
to slow down
and take a break.
They released just one single,
"(Oh) Pretty Woman"/"Happy Trails",
intended to be a
stand-alone release.
However,
the band's label
asked for
another album
due to the
A-side's success
and the band
recorded their
fifth studio album,
Diver Down,
very quickly.
Following the recording
of the album,
guitarist
Eddie Van Halen
was dissatisfied
by the concessions
he had made to
Van Halen
frontman
David Lee Roth
and Warner Bros.
producer
Ted Templeman.
Both discouraged Eddie
from making
keyboards a
prominent instrument
in the band's music.
By 1983,
Eddie was in the process
of building his own studio,
naming it
5150
after the California
law code
for the temporary,
involuntary psychiatric
commitment of individuals
who present a danger
to themselves
or others
due to signs of
mental illness,
with Donn Landee, t
he band's
longtime engineer
and later,
producer on the
5150
and
OU812
recordings
While boards and tape machines
were being installed,
Eddie began working on
synthesizers to pass the time.
"There were no presets,"
said Templeman.
"He would just twist off
until it sounded right."
There,
he composed
Van Halen's
follow-up to
Diver Down
without as much perceived
"interference"
from Roth
or Templeman.
The result was a
compromise between
the two creative factions
in the band:
a mixture of
keyboard-heavy songs,
and the
guitar-driven
hard rock
for which the band
was known.
1984
took about three months
to record,
compared to most
of their previous LPs
taking less than
two weeks,
and their first LP
taking only five days,
all at Sunset Studios.
Tracks recorded for the album
that remain unreleased
or were renamed
are according to a
Warner Bros.
memo from
August 24, 1983:
"Baritone Slide",
"Lie to You",
"Ripley",
"Any Time, Any Place",
"Forget It",
"5150 Special",
and
"Anything to Make It Right (synth)".
A September 7, 1983 memo
adds an eighth title
that didn't make
the album,
"Won't Let Go (needs lyrics)"
while dropping
"Lie To You"
and
"5150 Special".
"Ripley"
is confirmed to have
become
"Blood and Fire"
on the
A Different Kind of Truth album,
and as
"I'll Wait",
"Top Jimmy",
"Drop Dead Legs"
and
"Girl Gone Bad"
are not mentioned
on either memo,
the titles may have changed,
leaving at least
four unreleased tracks
from the
1984 sessions.
According to similar
Warner Bros. notes,
a cover version of
Wilson Pickett’s
“In the Midnight Hour”
was also recorded
very early
in the sessions
for the album.
In Rolling Stone's
retrospective review
of 1984 in its
"100 Best Albums of the Eighties" list,
Templeman said,
"It's real obvious to me why
1984 won
Van Halen a broader
and larger audience.
Eddie Van Halen
discovered the synthesizer."
Artwork
The album cover art
was directed by
Richard Seireeni
and Pete Angelus,
and the cover art
was painted by
graphic artist
Margo Nahas.
Seireeni,
then Creative Director
at Warner Bros. Records,
had collected a number
of artist portfolios
for the band to review.
Among those was
the work of
Margo Nahas.
Nahas had initially
been asked to create
a cover that featured
four chrome women dancing,
but declined
due to the
creative difficulties.
The band reviewed
her work once again,
and from her
previously created material
they chose the painting
of a putto
smoking cigarettes
that was used.
The model was
Carter Helm,
who was the child
of one of Nahas' best friends,
whom she photographed
holding a candy cigarette.
The front cover
was censored
in the UK
at the time
of the album's release.
It featured a sticker
that obscured the cigarette
in the putto's hand
and the pack of cigarettes.
The back cover
features all
four band
members individually with
1984
in a green
futuristic typeface.
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