Dance the Night Away (1979)

Performer: Van Halen                                           Writers: Van Halen
Highest US Chart Position: #15                            Label: Warner Brothers
Musicians: Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen

Unlike most new acts who suffer a sophomore slump after their debut, Van Halen II was possibly even more listener friendly than the group’s first album. This was no doubt due to the fact that the majority of the songs on the album had been standard repertoire in the group for several years. The only misstep was probably the ill-advised “Spanish Fly,” an attempt to do on an acoustic guitar what Eddie Van Halen had done in “Eruption” the year before but with minimal aphrodisiac qualities. “Dance the Night Away” was their biggest hit to date, after their remake of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” only managed to climb to number thirty-six in the charts the year before. As with all of the songs the group composed, it bore the names of all four members of the band, a rare occurrence in pop music that acknowledged the contribution of the entire group for the success of the music by sharing songwriting royalties evenly. After their first world tour in support of the debut album, Van Halen, the group decided to go immediately into the studio. For one thing, they already had enough songs prepared to record, and for another they felt that their chops would still be at peak levels, which they wouldn’t be after a rest.

The song begins with Alex Van Halen beating out a rhythm on the cowbell, and alternating with the hi-hats. Then Eddie Van Halen comes in on guitar with a similar rhythm. This is followed by a drum fill and then Michael Anthony’s bass filling in the bottom with a more regular rhythm. The lyrics by David Lee Roth barely tell a story at all, a young woman across the room at a club that he falls in love with and who wants nothing more than to dance the night away. Eddie was apparently interested in experimenting with keyboards at this point in the band’s evolution, but even without them he manages to get the same effect out of his guitar on the chorus with a clean countermelody that lifts it out of the realm of just another rock song. After the second chorus is a short bridge with wordless vocals by Roth, and then another radio-friendly element in a harmonic tapping solo by Eddie instead of a traditional full volume guitar solo. The backing on this section drops way down, with Alex on the high toms and no bass at all. Then everything rushes back in again like a wave against the shore with the entire band, including dense background vocals and Roth’s trademark screams, taking the song for nearly a full minute into the fadeout.

It’s a rather lightweight number for the group--ensuring lots of radio airplay--and reportedly inspired by one of Fleetwood Mac’s heavier tunes, “Go Your Own Way.” But there was always an infectious quality to Van Halen’s music right from the start, even on the heavier numbers, and I attribute that to the background vocals by Eddie and Michael. In the first place, they sound absolutely terrific, high and tight and perfectly on pitch. Secondly, they are true background vocals. They don’t harmonize with David Lee Roth, but instead provide a call and response style of answering chorus that is utterly unique the in hard rock of that day or any day. Another aspect of the band’s sound that was unique for the time is the heavy reverb on the tracks that made them sound like they were recording in a giant arena instead of a tiny studio in Hollywood. Roth actually wanted the chorus to be “Dance, Lolita, dance,” but fortunately wiser heads prevailed. The song peaked at number fifteen in July of 1979, with the uptempo and rather unmelodic "Outta Love Again" on the B-side. While “Dance the Night Away” might not seem like a true representation of the band’s music from the point of view of hard rock fans who quickly took to them in 1978, I would argue that, in terms of the David Lee Roth years, it’s actually quintessential Van Halen.