B-side Everybody Wants Some!! Genre Hard rock, heavy metal | Released May 1980 Length 5:08 | |
A-side And the Cradle Will Rock... Recorded December 1979 – February 1980 | ||
"Everybody Wants Some!!" is the second track on American hard rock band Van Halen's 1980 album Women and Children First. It is one of the band's most popular songs, starting as a concert highlight throughout the band's early career.
Contents
Composition
The song is rife with experimental features including a "jungle" drum-vocal introduction and some new guitar playing techniques from guitarist Eddie Van Halen. The drum-vocal interlude or breakdown section has an improvised feel, with Roth ad-libbing conversational dialogue; for example, he begins the section by saying “I like…” before being cut off by Eddie striking a guitar chord.
The song was a staple on all of the tours with Roth following its release. Often, the band would stop in the middle of the song and Roth would chat with the crowd for several minutes before finishing the song. In later years, with their later lead singers, Van Halen would use the opening drum beat from this song as an introduction into "Panama."
In popular culture
The song appeared in the 1985 comedy Better Off Dead in a humorous claymation scene. It is also features in the 2009 horror-comedy Zombieland.
It also features in the 2016 Richard Linklater film Everybody Wants Some!!