Songoftheday 2/26/16 - Hey everybody's lookin' for somethin', somethin' to fill in the holes...

"When It's Love" - Van Halen
from the album OU812 (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's song of the day is by the hard rock band Van Halen, whose second album with new lead singer Sammy Hagar was led by the guitar-punched grit of "Black And Blue", which snuck into the top 40 for a few weeks (mostly by sales and name recognition for radio). For the second release from the set they went with the much more airplay-friendly "When It's Love", which again poured on the synthesizers (like in their last album's "Why Can't This Be Love"). Written and produced by the band (along with producer Donn Landee), the single got mainstream pop radio back on board...

"When It's Love" returned Van Halen to the top ten on the American pop chart for the third and so far what would be their most recent time in September of 1988. The single also made it to #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart (like "Black and Blue" did), nabbing their fifth chart-topper there. Internationally, the track reached the top 30 in Canada (#21), Australia (#23), Ireland (#23), and the UK (#28).

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Here's the group performing "When It's Love" live in Japan in 1989...

...and again in 1992...

...finally, we fast forward to 1995 on their Balance tour...

Up tomorrow: Preppy rockers talking bout a flawless earth.