1984 (Van Halen album)

"MCMLXXXIV (album)" redirects here. For year, see 1984.

1984
A painting of a cherub smoking.
Studio album by
Van Halen
ReleasedJanuary 9, 1984 (1984-01-09)[1]
RecordedJune–October 1983
Studio5150 Studios in Studio City, California
Genre
Length33:22
LabelWarner Bros.
ProducerTed Templeman
Van Halen chronology
Diver Down
(1982) 		1984
(1984) 		5150
(1986)
Singles from 1984
  1. "Jump"
    Released: December 1983
  2. "I'll Wait"
    Released: April 1984
  3. "Panama"
    Released: June 1984
  4. "Hot for Teacher"
    Released: October 1984

1984 (stylized in Roman numerals as MCMLXXXIV) is the sixth studio album by American rock band Van Halen, released on January 9, 1984.[2] It was the last Van Halen studio album until A Different Kind of Truth (2012) to feature lead singer David Lee Roth, who left the band in 1985 following creative differences. This is the final full-length album to feature all four original members (the Van Halen brothers Eddie and Alex, Roth, and Michael Anthony), although they reunited briefly in 2000 to start work on what would much later become 2012's A Different Kind of Truth.[3] Roth returned in 2007, but Eddie's son Wolfgang replaced Anthony in 2006.[2] 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.[4]

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.

  1. ^ "BPI Certified Awards". bpi.co.uk. Archived from the original on September 17, 2016. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Van Halen's '1984' At 30: Classic Track-By-Track Review". Billboard. Archived from the original on December 31, 2016. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
  3. ^ "Did van Halen Almost Finish a David Lee Roth Reunion LP in 2000?". July 21, 2021.
  4. ^ "Top 100 Albums". Recording Industry Association of America. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved January 30, 2014.