Van Halen!

Boozy boozy bop- ziti bop

My favorite part of Van Halen Rising is when Mo Ostin get's dragged to see Van Halen the first time. He turns to the (A&R?) guy who brought him and says, "they sound like money."

literally otm

Amoeba records in SF has a separate artist tab for Van Hagar

Wow, I've never heard this before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsdvEQD-qls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCoedOFRp80

Excellent
Those closing credits sound like Jump (Part 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OyYP57A5sU

just emerged from a deep dive on account of "I'll Wait", same era, same vibe, apparently Ted Templeman voted against "I'll Wait" even after recruiting Michael McDonald to ghostwrite the thing

which is inconceivable, it's so good, give me all of the roth electro pop, lock van halen, roth and mcdonald in a room for a month and give them all the money and let me hear that please good lord why were these music executives so clueless

music execs are like the police chief in Die Hard when it comes to decision making

the guitar solo on i'll wait -- and the concluding simple drum fill -- has lived in my head for years

despite or becuase of its ernieness

I'm sorry, you can't name yourself Mr. Rock & Roll if you haven't heard Hot for Teacher before.

I don't know if it was the source of the deep dive, but coincidentally the newest issue of TapeOp has an interview with Donn Landee, who engineered all those Van Halen albums. Here's his "I'll Wait" story.

One song that bedeviled the band was "I'll Wait." Eventually, Michael McDonald co-wrote it. Do you remember that episode?

We had recorded the "I'll Wait" track, and Dave said he couldn't come up with any lyrics for it. Ted asked Michael McDonald to have a listen. Mike came into Ted's office, sang along with our tape, and Ted recorded his singing. Ted played it for me in the 5150 control room, and when it came to the chorus and I heard Mike sing, "I'll Wait," I knew that was it! I hit the talkback and said, "Ed! Get in here, you've got to hear this!"

Later he explains why the song became a sticking point, not because no one liked it but because the band was dead-set on calling the album "1984," and the plan was to release the album on January 1, 1984, and "I'll Wait" was (ironically) holding things up:

The record ran late and that caused some friction among Ted, you, and Ed. What happened?

"I'll Wait" wasn't done, and there were a couple little things that needed attention. I remember Lenny Waronker, who was then the label president, called and asked, "What's going on? When will you have it done?" I told him and he said, "Okay, then we can set the release for the first week in January." That was our final commitment, and we did it. Lenny really helped. We were able to have "Jump" come out on January 1st, and the album a week later.

“I’ll Wait” indeed!

i can’t hear too much about this song. i would read an entire book about it

No way the egos of Roth, Eddie and Mike mcD would last more than an hour in a room together

Fwiw I have a pretty clear memory of seeing the 1984 album in my local record store at the end of 1983. It drew my attention precisely because it had arrived "early." The store may not have been selling it yet, and/or the official release date may have been in '84 but I would testify that the album was done and shipped in '83.

Wikipedia says it was released on January 9, 1984, so it's entirely possible that it was being promoted in the month(s) leading up to that.

I was working in a record store by the fall of 1984, we sold a literal shit ton of that album.

Which weighs more, a ton of shit, or a ton of Van Halen?

Just out of curiosity, when you work in a record store are you legally bound to wait for the official release date to sell an album or is it more of a handshake agreement kind of thing to wait till then?

(no pun intended there)

Typically, we wouldn't receive the shipment until the day of release. If something did happen to come in early, we were told in no uncertain terms not to put it out. I am sure that was part of the deal with the suppliers, but I never actually saw any paperwork on it.

But yeah, we would put up promo stuff in advance if we got it.

Just out of curiosity, when you work in a record store are you legally bound to wait for the official release date to sell an album or is it more of a handshake agreement kind of thing to wait till then?

― Josefa, Wednesday, January 31, 2024 9:50 AM bookmarkflaglink

When I worked at Best Buy, we got shipments for tons of new album releases very early (and some only came in just in time for the release). we were given a lengthy sheet that pointed out the release date for all new albums (this was back when Tuesdays were the release date).

much like computer games, for the major releases, we were basically told with various threats not to put anything on the endcaps/shelves early or else, because of course they could track if anything sold early and *fines*, baby. But weirdly, I was giving feedback to someone that they'd put some smaller new releases on the shelf early and my boss intervened and said "ehh, if it's not one of the major new releases that we're putting on the endcap, who cares?".

so the new Aaron Neville album was available early to anybody who was seeking it out hard.

I do know we had a dumb employee who put like World of Warcraft on the shelf early, when the servers wouldn't even go live until the release date (so it was useless to buy early), and when the software company was adamant about not doing it. I think we sold 12 copies and our GM was flipping the fuck out

Just out of curiosity, when you work in a record store are you legally bound to wait for the official release date to sell an album or is it more of a handshake agreement kind of thing to wait till then?

When I was in high school, a friend's family owned a record store, and I remember them being extremely pissed off that a record store in the next town had gotten a shipment early and put copies of Metallica's Black Album on sale the Friday before release date.

getting disappointed early! nice

lol

My hometown Walmart did that with ReLoad (probably because it came out Thanksgiving week and the merchandiser didn't want to come back then)

I help run a chain of record stores. Typically the threat is that you may lose your status as a direct account of the distributor you're buying from if you put out records early.

have you ever seen that enforced?

Nope!

I mean, it used to be a fairly regular occurrence that if a record store heard another record store was selling early, you would go buy a copy and send a copy of the receipt to the distro. Then the distro would reach out to that store and they'd say "oh whoops... we're so sorry". Then nothing would happen.

I worked in the electronics dept of a K-Mart and got to buy Pearl Jam's Vitalogy a couple of days early. I don't remember if I cajoled the CD vendor into letting me buy it or just grabbed it out of a box of other CDs and just played dumb. I brought it to my friend's place and people were all "how did you get this?"

Followed immediately by, "What the fuck is this shit?"

I haven't listened to a new Pearl Jam album since, but Corduroy is all-time.

Agreed, but it's not an easy album to warm to at first.

Good album.

the only cd I got early that I was excited to get early was Dying Fetus - Destroy the Opposition, but only cos I was a small-time unpaid critic for a music website at the time and got the promo sent to me.

never got lucky enough to see a cd actually improperly sitting on the shelf early, sadly.

I was never a big "gotta have the new album on release date!" guy but I do remember walking into a Best Buy the day Iron Maiden's A Matter of Life and Death came out, and the guy stocking the CD section said, "I bet I know what you're here for," and I looked down and realized I was wearing an Iron Maiden shirt and honestly felt like kind of a dickhead. But I bought the CD, which is still my favorite of their 21st century albums.

Ted asked Michael McDonald to have a listen. Mike came into Ted's office, sang along with our tape, and Ted recorded his singing. Ted played it for me in the 5150 control room, and when it came to the chorus and I heard Mike sing, "I'll Wait," I knew that was it! I hit the talkback and said, "Ed! Get in here, you've got to hear this!"

I live for this nonsense, thanks Josh

Should probably be a separate thread but what I would give to hear Mike and Mike sing I'll Wait, y'know old arcane legendary recordings that may or may not exist anymore if they ever existed to begin with

"I'll Wait (No Consonants Version)"

"I'll Wait (Michael McDonald feat. James Ingram version)"

I knew he wrote it, but it wasn't until that quote that I pictured MM singing it. Must've been magical.

We need a McDonald sings the VH classics album..."shenorita ah'm in trouble aghain..."

ahdofear tardih

“I ain’t the worst that you’ve seen”
Ain’t it the truth

still obsessed with I'll Wait, can we do an ilx cover where everyone takes a couple lines and does their best Michael McDonald impression

My roommates in college and I used to get very high and do a Michael McDonald Barbershop Quartet at like 3am. Perhaps we can reform for this.