On This Day, March 17, 1984...
Van Halen’s sixth studio album, 1984, hit #2 on the Billboard Albums chart and stayed there for five weeks.
The album was denied the top spot by Michael Jackson’s Thriller – which features guest guitar work from Eddie Van Halen on the track “Beat It.”
While 1984 never reached #1, it did go on to sell more than 10 million copies. It featured such classic Van Halen tracks as their only #1 single “Jump,” “Panama,” “Hot For Teacher” and “I’ll Wait.”
1984 was the last Van Halen album to feature original frontman David Lee Roth, until 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth. It was also the last full-length album to feature all four original members of Van Halen, as bassist Michael Anthony was replaced by Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen on the 2012 album.