Although they were still selling out arenas and stadiums, Van Halen's 1982 album Diver Down was a haphazard affair comprised of half-finished songs and padded with cover tunes. But the group rallied brilliantly for their next effort.

Michael Anthony says:

“We never considered ourselves a singles band, so our attitude was always like, ‘whatever’ when it came to what the label wanted to put out. Our albums sold in the millions no matter what.

“But we were a little dubious when Warner Brothers said they wanted to put Jump out as a single. ‘It’s another keyboard song,' we all said. 'Hmmm, we don’t know about this...“ In the end, we said, ‘Fine, go ahead,‘ and boom! - our first No. 1 single. Amazing.

“I had a great time playing on 1984. I felt like I was growing as a player and background singer. Plus, I think the band was getting very creative. But then, right as everything went as high as it could possibly go, we hit a brick wall - hard.”