Jump (Van Halen song)
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"Jump" is a song recorded by the rock group Van Halen. "Jump" is the only single the group released in their career to reach #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.[1] "Jump" was released in 1984 as the second track on the album 1984. The song breaks the mould of earlier Van Halen songs, mainly in its rolling synth line (played on an Oberheim OB-Xa), although the song contains the standard Eddie Van Halen guitar solo, which Eddie claims as his favorite solo he ever wrote.
The video for "Jump" was directed by David Lee Roth.
"Jump" may be Van Halen's most popular and instantly recognizable composition, perhaps because its sound embodies the key aspects of both of the two genres of popular music most associated with the 1980's in America: synth-driven pop and "arena"-style metal. Its synthesized brass introduction is one of popular music's most recognizable musical introductions. "Jump" changed the future and style of Van Halen from being a predominantly Hard Rock band to one of more radio-oriented popular music.
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[edit] 'Jump' and the Breakup of the Original Van Halen
This stylistic change was further cemented when it seemed to create severe tensions between Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth, who it has been claimed wanted the band to avoid using synthesizers and focus more on traditional hard rock (although given that Roth's output has been the more diverse of the two camps, and that synths were used on Fair Warning, and also that Roth actually played synth on Diver Down, the previous album, this seems an implausible explanation for the split). The conflict that eventually ended in Roth's leaving the band seems to have been more to do with the balance of the power in the band. Until Fair Warning it was arguably the case that Eddie was happy to take a backseat in the direction the band took. Clearly, David Lee Roth and Ted Templemen (who was a senior Warners figure in addition to being probably the company's most senior producer) exercised a lot of control, and perhaps managed to swing it back in their favour because Eddie was forced into recording a fast album - see the account of the making of Diver Down - soon after the Fair Warning tour. In the 1995 Rolling Stone cover story on/interview with Eddie Van Halen (RS #705, dated April 6) the circumstances surrounding Roth's leaving are discussed. In this interview Eddie claims that the main reason for the split was that Roth and Ted Templeman both disliked the fact that he had built his own studio and was able to work on music away from their influence. He said that "the first thing I did up here was 'Jump' and they [Roth and Templeman] didn't like it. I said 'take it or leave it', I was getting sick of their ideas of what was commercial ... At first [Roth's solo EP] Crazy From the Heat was great because Roth laid off me a bit. Little did I know he was testing the waters. Then he called me up and asked me to go to his house and said he was going to make a Crazy From the Heat movie. He had some deal that fell through. But at the time I was depressed. I cried, then I called my brother and told him the motherfucker quit."
Nevertheless, Roth and Templeman did work on "Jump" at Eddie's disputed new studio, with Roth providing the lyrics and the vocal melody. The song thereafter secured its place among rock music's most popular songs, and is now considered by some to be one of the most influential rock songs of all time. [1]
[edit] Covers
- This song was covered in 2005 by Paul Anka on the album Rock Swings.
- It was also covered in a slowed-down, acoustic version by Scottish band Aztec Camera, and released as a B-side to their August 1984 single "All I Need Is Everything". The singer, Roddy Frame, claimed that the riff reminded him of The Lou Reed/Velvet Underground song, '"Sweet Jane". In an interview with the New Musical Express (NME) in Feb. 9th 1985, David Lee Roth said he thought this version was 'great.'
- Mary Lou Lord also covered this in a slowed-down, acoustic version for a Van Halen tribute album Everybody Wants Some...A Loose Interpretation of the Music Genius of Van Halen. The album is performed by a variety of Boston independent musicians.
- Former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth recorded a bluegrass version of the song for his 2006 album Strummin' With the Devil: The Southern Side of Van Halen.
- The song was covered on a 2001 episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The skit involved playing "Jump" to congratulate a new NBC affiliate for picking up O'Brien's show. The song was parodied itself. In place of playing the famous intro to the song a heavy metal singer sang the call letters of the station along to the intro.
- This song was Covered by UK Dance act Bus Stop.
- WVKEAF sampled and remixed the song in the form of a hardcore techno track in 1997.
[edit] Trivia
- The music video for this song cost "...$600.00 and a few bottles of Jack Daniels."[citation needed]
- In 2001, police were attempting to talk down a jumper who was threatening to plummet from a highway overpass in Omaha, Nebraska, when someone began transmitting the Van Halen song onto the police radio [2]. The man was nonetheless talked down safely.
- In 2003, it was ranked 119 on the RIAA's list "Songs of the Century" [3] and VH1 named it number 95 on its "100 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.
- Was narrowly defeated by the other ten-week champ music video "Photograph" by Def Leppard on MTV's Friday Night Video Fights[citation needed]
- This song is often played at the introduction of sea animal shows at theme parks.
- Was used in the 2005 movie Herbie Fully Loaded as Herbie avoids wrecks in a demolition derby.
- Eddie Van Halen told Daryl Hall (of Hall and Oates) that he copied the synth part of "Kiss On My List" and used it in "Jump".[4]
- This song was played at the beginning of the Chicago Cubs games until recently and is still played at the games of Brøndby IF. It was the skate-on theme for the NHL's Winnipeg Jets for many years.
- At the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, the video won for Best Stage Performance Video.
- VH1 named it the #14 greatest song of the 80's in November of 2006.
- The guitar riff used at the end of the song, following the guitar/synthesizer solo, was later used as the main riff for the song "Top Of The World" on 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.
[edit] References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th ed, Billboard Publications, Inc. 1996. ISBN 0-8230-7632-6
[edit] External links
| Preceded by "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single February 25, 1984- March 24, 1984 |
Succeeded by "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins |
