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1980
  Van
Halen's third album, released in March, 1980.
Women and Children First marked the first time Van
Halen completely filled an album with original
songs, and David Lee Roth gave perhaps his best
vocal performance as a member of Van Halen. Again,
Ted Templeman produced the album, recorded at
Sunset Sound, in just 2 1/2 weeks. The band
recorded most of the songs live , with again, very
few overdubs.
Although this record did not yield a hit single,
the album charted as high as #6 in the States and
#15 in the U.K. It also became the band's third
multi-platinum release. The band's 1980
"Invasion Tour was more successful than their
previous two tours, and the performances even more
intense. Also, Eddie Van Halen received his third
straight "Best Rock Guitarist of the
Year" award from the readers of Guitar Player
magazine.
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Gold
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Platinum |
Multi-Platinum |
| 5/29/80 | 6/2/80 | 10/22/84
(2x) |
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(3x) |
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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 3/26/80
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| Copies
Sold: 4.3
Million (US) |
| Peak
Position (US): 6 |
| Weeks
on Chart: 31 |
| Recording
Time: 2
½ Weeks |
| Peak
Position (UK): 15 |
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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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And
the Cradle Will Rock (3:31)
"And
The Cradle Will Rock..." featured a small electric
piano part blasting though Eddie's Marshall amplifiers.
This marked the first time a keyboard was used on a Van
Halen record.
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Everybody
Wants Some (5:05)
"Everybody
Wants Some!!" was a concert highlight for several
tours and was featured in the movie Better Off Dead with
John Cusack. The opening guitar effect was the same as
in "Atomic Punk," but instead of Eddie rubbing
against all the strings, he rubbed just the low E. The
drum/vocal interlude was completely ad-libbed. Dave came
into the studio on the day of recording with the vocals
unprepared, so he just winged it. Dave has stated that
the actual lyrics were not sung perfectly in favor of
the more mumbled words to add more feel to the song.
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Fools
(5:55)
"Fools"
was written during the band's club years, Eddie did the
intro spontaneously in the studio in one take. Early
versions of this song date back to 1974 with Mark Stone
on bass, providing far different backing harmonies than
Mike's signature backing vocals. It was originally
titled "I Live With Fools".
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Romeo
Delight (4:19)
"Romeo
Delight" was a concert highlight during the
"Invasion Tour." Many of the song's melodies
were taken from an unreleased track called "Get The
Show On The Road," recorded during the "Van
Halen" sessions. Dave often forgot the lyrics to
this song during live performances. Notably, the '83 US
Festival, where he yelled "I forgot the fuckin'
words" during the second verse.
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Tora!
Tora! (:57)
"Tora!
Tora!" espoused Van Halen's attitude towards
touring. This instrumental was actually recorded to tape
backwards. The song's title and lyrics were inspired by
the toast and battle cry of Japanese Kamikaze pilots in
WWII. Ed wanted to call this song "Act Like It
Hurts".
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Loss
of Control (2:36)
"Loss
of Control" had been written in 1976 as a
commentary on the first wave of Punk Rock to reach
America. The video for this song (which was never
released) features the band in surgical outfits.
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Take
Your Whiskey Home (3:09)
"Take
Your Whiskey Home" contained no guitar overdubs and
an exceptional acoustic guitar intro. Very early
versions of this song date back to 1974 with slightly
different lyrics and longer solo sections. The acoustic
intro was not present on those early versions..
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Could
This Be Magic? (3:08)
"Could
This Be Magic" was an excellent acoustic guitar and
vocal harmony workout. As the band prepared to record
this song, producer Ted Templeman suggested a slightly
different sound for the chorus. Nicolette Larson was
brought in from the next studio, where she was working
on a solo album, and supplied the only female backing
vocal ever heard on a Van Halen record. Her harmony can
best be heard on the line "Could this be
magic?" right after the guitar solo. A small, but
unique contribution.
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In
a Simple Rhyme (4:33)
"In
A Simple Rhyme" was written in late 1975 and played
often during the band's club years. Eddie wrote the
acoustic intro during the "Women and Children
First" sessions and recorded it on a 12-string
electric guitar
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Growth
(:4)
According
to Eddie, the 20-second piece of music following
"In a Simple Rhyme" was supposed to be
continued on the beginning of the next album. As you may
have guessed, this didn't happen. Rumor has it the
working title of this song was "Growth" and it
only appears on the CD and LP versions of this album.
Mike once referred to this song as "Tank"
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