When Van Halen first hit the music scene, no one had heard anything like them. In a landscape still dominated by soft rock and progressive rock on the charts, Eddie Van Halen’s guitar tone and David Lee Roth’s energetic stage presence revived the genre. It resulted in some of the most celebrated songs to ever come out of California. Although Eddie could have left a legacy with almost anything he played, he admitted that one of his compositions was based on the sounds of soft rock.
Eddie grew up listening to music that was far from the sounds of soppy ballads. Eddie praised Eric Clapton’s Cream guitar tone when discussing the first songs he fell in love with. He also admired Tony Iommi’s work with Black Sabbath.
Eddie enjoyed heavy music, but he also had a soft side. Playing swing with his father in youth, Eddie later embraced softer tracks, with son Wolfgang recalling emotional moments. His son Wolfgang recalled that Eddie would cry while listening to works like Peter Gabriel’s ‘Don’t Give Up’.
Although the guitar provided Eddie with a great outlet, his musical vision was too broad to be limited to just one instrument. Eddie took to the keyboard for the first time on Women and Children First. This created distorted madness on tracks like ‘And The Cradle Will Rock’. Later it lead many to believe he was playing an affected guitar.
As Eddie became more interested in playing the piano, the band began to shift their sound towards pop. Which did not always sit well with Roth. Despite the frontman’s wishes, 1984 became one of their most successful albums to date, with massive hits like ‘Jump’.
Instead of starting with a Van Halen guitar lick, the track began with playing synthesizers. Eddie created the majority of the song on the keyboard. Even though Eddie probably created an entire track by tickling the ivories, he later admitted to listening to Hall and Oates while making the record.
Eddie admitted to borrowing the crux of the riff from ‘Kiss On My List’ after the duo had become one of pop music’s most successful acts. When you listen to both songs back to back, the similarities become obvious. Both songs share similarities in key and syncopated rhythms, alternating between both hands.
Despite the similarities, Darryl Hall had no dislike towards the Van Halen camp, stating later, “It’s something we all do. Eddie Van Halen told me that he used the synth part from ‘Kiss on My List’ in ‘Jump’. I have no problem with that at all.” Although there may have been some legal issues, the influence of the soul duo resulted in a soft rock romp and a hair metal banger in the same lick.
