I'll Wait

Album: 1984 (1984)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "I'll Wait" was written as a collaboration between the Van Halen group members and former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald. The singer was brought in by producer Ted Templeman, who had a long professional relationship with the Doobie Brothers. McDonald recalled to Uncut:

    "Van Halen had cut the track - the chord progression and the arrangement was already recorded and they needed some lyrics and a melody to go over that. Ted asked me to help out, so I sat down with David Lee Roth in Ted's office at Warner Brothers and wrote out a lyric.

    Just to show you the difference between that band and our band as far as record sales, I probably made more money as a one fifth writer on that song than I did on the entire Doobie Brothers album the subsequent year."
  • According to ClassicVanHalen.com, the synthesizer-driven song is about a girl wearing men's underwear in a Calvin Klein print media ad. Roth tacked the picture next to a Sony Trinitron TV and he and McDonald addressed the lyrics to her.
  • This was the second single from Van Halen's album 1984, following "Jump." Both songs are heavy on synthesizer, a new sound for the band that risked putting off some core fans. "Jump," a very radio friendly track, went to #1 in February 1984; "I'll Wait" which reached #13 in June, had more rock edge and served as a transition to the next singles, "Panama" and "Hot For Teacher," both guitar-driven and more in line with classic Van Halen.
  • Van Halen were huge on MTV but they didn't make a video for this song due to time constraints. By this time, lead singer David Lee Roth was exploring a solo career and it wasn't easy to get all the members together for a video shoot. There was also no obvious visual concept for the song, unlike "Panama" (cars) and "Hot For Teacher" (hot teachers).

Comments: 2

  • AnonymousIs this song about some 80s model?
  • Randy from Las Vegas, NvI know this is just a personal anecdote but I was talking to a girl one night in an AOL chat room in 1994 and she told me she was friends with Christie Brinkley and she said Christie had a huge crush on David Lee Roth in the early 80's and even kinda stalked him LOL. She said Dave was also enamored with her and wrote this song about her. Like I said, it was just one conversation that I have no solid proof on but it seemed credible.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real Group

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real GroupSong Writing

The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")Song Writing

Wes Edwards takes us behind the scenes of videos he shot for Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Chase Bryant. The train was real - the airplane was not.

Kiss

KissFact or Fiction

Kiss is the subject of many outlandish rumors - some of which happen to be true. See if you can spot the fakes.

James Bond Theme Songs

James Bond Theme SongsMusic Quiz

How well do you know the 007 theme songs?

Carol Kaye

Carol KayeSongwriter Interviews

A top session musician, Carol played on hundreds of hits by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra and many others.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.