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1979
  Van
Halen's second record was released in March, 1979.
In January, barely 48 hours after the end of their
first tour, the boys went back into Sunset Sound
in Hollywood to work on Van Halen II. Ten days
later it was finished, and again produced by Ted
Templeman, who had worked wonders on Van Halen's
first record. Like its predecessor, instrumental
overdubs were limited to just three songs. Except
for one number written in the studio, Van Halen
had performed the rest of the album on stage, some
since the band's club days. Another side note,
David Lee Roth was wearing a plaster cast on his
foot in the photo on the inside album cover,
because he had actually broken the foot while
making the giant leap pictured on the back cover.
This album sold over five million copies and
charted as high as #6 in the States and #23 in the
U.K. Eddie also garnered his second Guitar Player
magazine "Best Rock Guitarist of the
Year" award.
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Gold
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Platinum |
Multi-Platinum |
| 4/3/79 | 5/8/79 | 10/22/84
(3x) |
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(4x) |
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Check out
our CD Covers page to download and print out these
CD-size covers:
Front
Back
Inside
CD
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Released
on 3/23/79
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| Copies
Sold: 5.7
Million (US) |
| Peak
Position (US): 6 |
| Weeks
on Chart: 47 |
| Recording
Time: 6 days |
| Peak
Position (UK): 23 |
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| Producer:
Ted Templeman |
| Engineer:
Don Landee |
| Recorded
at: Sunset Sound Recorders,
Hollywood |
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| Reviews |
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| Singles |
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Dance the Night Away, Beautiful
Girls
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You're
No Good (3:12)
"You're
No Good" was an old standard written by Clint
Ballard Jr. and covered by many mainstream artists over
the years. Since their club days, Van Halen had played
what they thought was Linda Ronstadt's version of the
song, but since they only heard her version on the radio
(and never really listened to it), their rendition came
out out radically different. The intro was originally
part of a bass solo Mike had worked on.
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Dance
the Night Away (3:04)
"Dance
the Night Away" became Van Halen's first Top 15
hit, in July of 1979. The song came together one
afternoon in the studio as the boys were standing in a
circle humming at each other. It was inspired by
Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way." Eddie
purposely left out a guitar solo in the final version.
The song's early title was "Dance Lolita
Dance," but Eddie convinced Dave that "Dance
the Night Away" was a more suitable title, hence
the band changed the chorus. Al identified this song as
one of his two least favorite Van Halen tracks.
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Somebody
Get Me a Doctor (2:51)
"Somebody
Get Me A Doctor" was written about the same time as
"Runnin' With the Devil" and was performed
live during the band's club days. If you listen closely,
you can hear applause at the end of Eddie's guitar solo.
Apparently when the band was recording live in the
studio as usual, Eddie's solo performance tore everybody
there apart, hence the applause. Eddie also changed the
song's intro from the early club version, reversing
chords. The solo section of this tune was also extended
for live performances, and very often turned into a jam
session between Ed and Al.
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Bottoms
Up! (3:04)
"Bottoms
Up!" was an old standard from Van Halen's bar and
party sets. They used this song as their encore
throughout their first world tour. Eddie overdubbed his
guitar solos on this song.
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Outta
Love Again (2:49)
"Outta
Love Again" had been written by Eddie, Al, and Dave
in early 1973, just before Michael Anthony was brought
into the band.
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Light
Up the Sky (3:09)
"Light
Up The Sky" was the song Van Halen used to start
every show on their second world tour. Eddie wrote the
basic melody right after the band finished recording
their debut album. The final arrangement came together
during the final sessions for "Van Halen II."
This was also one of the three tracks where Eddie
overdubbed his guitar solo. Alex wanted this song to be
released as a single.
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Spanish
Fly (:58)
"Spanish
Fly" was Eddie's unaccompanied guitar solo on this
record and featured acoustic guitar work. Ed got the
idea for this song after playing on an acoustic guitar
during a New Year's Eve party at Ted Templeman's house
on 12/31/78. Ted was surprised that Eddie could play an
acoustic guitar just as well as an electric and
suggested he write an acoustic instrumental for the new
album. He recorded it on a nylon-string Ovation guitar.
Eddie has since incorporated many parts of this song
into his live guitar solo.
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D.O.A
(4:07)
"D.O.A."
had been written during the band's early days on the
Southern California bar and party circuit.
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Women
In Love (4:05)
"Women
In Love" is about a guy who loses his girlfriend to
another girl. The title also is the name of a book by
D.H. Lawrence and David Lee Roth is known to be an avid
reader. The intro showcased Ed's new technique of
false-harmonics"
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Beautiful
Girls (3:18)
"Beautiful
Girls" was the second single released from
"Van Halen II" and was a concert staple during
the band's 1979 World Tour. The song was originally
titled "Bring On The Girls" when it was
recorded for the 25-song Warner Bros. demo in 1977. Most
of the original lyrics found their way onto this album
version, with the chorus lyrics altered.
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