Women and Children First (album)
| Women and Children First | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Van Halen | ||||
| Released | March 26, 1980 | |||
| Recorded | December 1979 – February 1980 | |||
| Studio | Sunset Sound, Los Angeles | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, heavy metal | |||
| Length | 33:13 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Producer | Ted Templeman | |||
| Van Halen chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from Women and Children First | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | B |
| Rolling Stone | (favorable) |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide |  |
Women and Children First is the third studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on March 26, 1980 on Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Ted Templeman, it was the first to feature compositions written solely by the band, and is described by critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "[the] record where the group started to get heavier, both sonically and, to a lesser extent, thematically."
The opening track, "And the Cradle Will Rock...", begins with what sounds like a guitar, but is, in fact, a phase shifter-effected Wurlitzer electric piano played through Van Halen's 1960s model 100-watt Marshall Plexi amplifier.
The album is somewhat different from their first two albums in the way that it features more studio overdubs, and less emphasis on backing vocals. "Could This Be Magic?", conversely, contains the only female backing vocal ever recorded for a Van Halen song; Nicolette Larson sings during some of the choruses. The rain sound in the background is not an effect. It was raining outside, and they decided to record the sound in stereo using two Neumann KM84 microphones, and added it to the track.
The first single from the album is the keyboard driven "And the Cradle Will Rock..." Although the single was not a success like previous singles "Dance the Night Away" or the cover of "You Really Got Me", the album itself was well received and further entrenched the band as a popular concert draw. The song "Everybody Wants Some!!" was also a concert staple through the 1984 tour, and continued to be played by David Lee Roth after he left Van Halen.
...
Wikipedia