I'll Wait by Van Halen

Album: 1984 (1984)

License This Song

artistfacts

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

More Songfacts:

DreamsFleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac were going through various internecine romantic tribulations while recording their Rumours album. The song "Dreams" was written by Stevie Nicks with the line "Players only love you when they're playing" directed at their guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham.

We Didn't Start The FireBilly Joel

Billy Joel wrote "We Didn't Start The Fire" after a 21-year-old told him, "everyone knows that nothing happened in the '50s."

All Around The WorldLisa Stansfield

"All Around The World" by Lisa Stansfield has a sultry spoken intro inspired by Barry White. He was honored by the homage, and in 1992 joined Stansfield to record a duet version of the song.

CarsGary Numan

In Gary Numan's "Cars," the message is that cars lead to a mechanical society devoid of personal interaction. This didn't stop automakers from using it in commercials. Both Nissan and Oldsmobile have used it in ads.