Description

Van Halen recorded and released a cover version of Dancing in the Street, as the second single from their 1982 album Diver Down. This version features heavy use of a synthesizer, played by Eddie Van Halen. Their version attracted decent commercial success, reaching the top 40 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and becoming a top 15 hit on the Canadian Singles Chart. Speaking about the cover, group member David Lee Roth said: It sounds like more than four people are playing, when in actuality there are almost zero overdubs — that's why it takes us such a short amount of time [to record]. Group member Eddie van Halen, discussing the cover and discussing his synthesizer part in the track, said: "It takes almost as much time to make a cover song sound original as it does writing a song. I spent a lot of time arranging and playing synthesizer on 'Dancing in the Streets,' and they [critics] just wrote it off as, 'Oh, it's just like the original.' So forget the critics! These are good songs. Why shouldn't we redo them for the new generation of people?. B-side for this single is a cover of The Kinks track Where Have All The Good Times Gone. Dave says: We're capable of playing six different Kinks songs. Because at one time, back in our bar days, I bought a double album from K-Tel or something that had 30 Kinks tunes on it. We learned all of one side and played them into the dirt during the club gigs, twice a night each one, because they sounded so good and they were great to dance to, etc.. He added that the band had never met Ray Davies but that ‘we had a seance once and tried to dredge up his spirit. And Chrissie Hynde materialized for a brief moment’. Eddie: The solo was more sounds than lines. I ran the edge of my pick up and down the strings for some of those effects. I think I used my Echoplex in that song. Track listing: 1. Dancing In The Street-Martha Reeves And The Vandellas cover 2. Where Have All The Good Times Gone-The Kinks cover