Songoftheday 6/6/13 - I get up and nothin' gets me down, you got it tough I've seen the toughest around...

Van Halen - "Jump"
from the album 1984 (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (five weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day is by the hard rock party gods Van Halen, who by the early 80s were kind of coasting, with a successful yet artistically stunted Diver Down album producing two top 40 hits but with covers of "(Oh) Pretty Woman" and "Dancing In The Streets". After a rambunctious tour and a year away from pop and rock radio with any new material, the band went in to record their sixth studio album, guitarist and band namesake Eddie Van Halen holed himself in his own self-built studio and experimented with different sounds, using the synthesizer to jam like he would with his guitars.

What arose from those noodlings was the song "Jump", which seemed to come out of nowhere when it appeared on MTV, a mix of hard rock attitude and cool keyboard new-wave joy that sounded nothing like anything else. Even though this is credited to the whole band, it was really Eddie's music and David Lee Roth's lyrics on this one, produced by Ted Templeman, their longtime producer (who was initially against the new sound)...

Jump exceeded their wildest expectations, topping the pop chart in the US, as well as Canada and Italy, and going top 10 or top-20 all over the world (it stopped at #7 in the UK). Moreover, it set Van Halen as an A-list pop act, not just a rock band, and opened the door for mainstream rock to get back on the radio through the new-wave din. And not only did the track top the rock radio chart in America, it managed to make the dance chart, peaking at #17 - bringing guitars to the dance floor in a big way. "Jump" even spent three weeks on the R&B chart, making it to #88...

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The same year, Scottish new-wave group Aztec Camera covered the song more somberly, making the lyrics much more dark...