Jump is one of the most ubiquitous pop/rock singles of the 80s, and as such it is loathed by many. It's the moment where Van Halen embraced synths and downplayed heavy rock in favour of superstardom, so you can imagine how well that went down with certain parts of their fandom. It also (allegedly, according to Daryl Hall, who says he's "all right with it) steals its synth line from Hall & Oates' Kiss On My List, which must have had even more Van Halen fans tearing out their poodle-length hair.
It's worth saying that, like it or not, Jump! must be one of the most iconic pop videos of the MTV era, and David Lee Roth proves with worth as a Mick Jagger-esque frontman right here...
They don't make pop stars - or pop videos - like that anymore, and the world is a darker place without them.
Eddie Van Halen apparently wrote the lyrics to Jump! after watching a news report of a man threatening to commit suicide wherein one of the onlookers exhorted him to "go ahead and jump!", although Eddie intended the lyric to be more about jumping into a relationship than throwing yourself off a building.
Enter Roddy Frame, who slowed the song down and returned it to its suicide-inducing roots as the b-side of Aztec Camera's All I Need Is Everything less than a year after Van Halen's original had left the charts.
Ah, you might as well jump
Well, you might as well jump
Go ahead and jump
You might as well jump
Seems appropriate for a Monday morning...
Never heard that version - I like-y
ReplyDeleteAt least you didn't go for the Paul Anka's Big Band Lounge version
I liked the idea of that Paul Anka album... it just wasn't very interesting in reality.
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