If it seems like Sammy Hagar looks like he was pissed off during the filming of the music video for Van Halen’s Right Now, that’s because he was. Hagar was firmly opposed to the video’s concept, saying that the MTV audience would be so busy reading the subtitles that they wouldn’t pay attention to the lyrics. It also didn’t help that, when the video was shot, Hagar was also suffering with pneumonia. When Hagar slammed the door at the end of the video, that wasn’t acting.
The video was directed by Mark Fenske and produced by Carolyn Beug. (Ten years after the video was released, Beug was killed in the crash American Airlines Flight 11 on Steptember 11th, 2001. At the National 9/11 Memorial, Beug is memorialized at the North Pool, on Panel N-1.) For the shot of the photograph being set on fire, Fenske used an old picture of himself. As well, Fenske’s mother appears in the video, kissing the camera.
Right Now is probably the best known of the songs to come out of the Van Hagar period. Despite Hagar’s reservations, the video was one of Van Halen’s most successful, winning the award for video of the year at the MTV Music Video Awards.
David Lee Roth first came to prominence as the lead singer of Van Halen. Famously, he and Eddie Van Halen did not get along but the band’s early success was definitely due to the combination of Eddie’s technical virtuosity and Roth’s unabashed stage presence. For better or worse, Roth earned the right to be known as Diamond Dave. When Roth left Van Halen (for the first time) and embarked on his solo career, he made up for what he may have lacked in range with pure theatrical showmanship. Nowhere was that more evident than in Roth’s first solo hit, a cover of the Beach Boys’s California Girls.
Even before the video begins, we know what’s in store for us:
Assuming the opening quote hasn’t scared you off, the video proper begins somewhere in California, with a campy Twilight Zone-style narrator introducing us to a tour group of strange-looking tourists and Jane Leeves. (Nine years after this video, Leeves would be better known for playing Daphne Moon on Frasier.)
Fortunately, the world’s best tour guide is there to show them what California’s all about!
But first, Diamond Dave makes them all walk through a cemetery for some reason.
Of course, Diamond Dave loves the East Coast Girls. The Yo Mamma graffiti is a nice touch.
And Diamond Dave loves the Southern Girls, with the way they talk and hang their Confederate flags.
He also likes the Midwest Girls and, apparently, corn.
And don’t forget Northern Girls, with the way they kiss in the snow.
But you know what Dave really likes?
California Girls!
Jane Leeves is amazed!
The bodybuilder here is played by Kay Baxter, who was Dave’s personal trainer at the time.
The screenshot below is not only the epitome of Diamond Dave but also a good example of why he and Van Halen have always had such an uneasy working relationship. Eddie Van Halen could probably perform a technically perfect version of California Girls (or any other Beach Boys song) but he could never pull off an orange suit and a bowtie.
The video’s most famous (and most often parodied) moment comes when Dave dances down a runway of bikini-clad models, who are all standing still and posed like mannequins. It may be ridiculous put it’s also the epitome of David Lee Roth.
California Girls was one of Roth’s biggest solo hits and, much like him, it epitomizes an era. Roth would later rejoin and leave Van Halen several more times before finally joining again in 2007. When last checked, Roth was still a member and he probably still loves California girls.
If you live in a place that celebrates Daylight Savings Time, then remember to set your clocks forward an hour.
This is one of those videos where the people involved can tell the story behind the video.
Pete Angelus was the director of the video. He had a relationship with the band that went back to the 1970s.
Robert Lombard was the producer.
Ann Carli was the senior vice president of artist development at Jive Records.
Here’s the backstory from the book I Want My MTV:
Robert Lombard: “Jump” is where the drama really started. Dave wanted the performance video intercut with him doing crazy shit, like driving his chopped Merc hot rod and hanging out with midgets and girls in maids’ outfits. So we shot hours of footage.
Pete Angelus: Rather than doing something bigger than life, which is how Van Halen was perceived, we wanted something very personal. Let’s see if we can get Edward to smile. Of course, we also had to appease Dave, who wanted to throw his karate tricks into the equation.
Michael Anthony: There was getting to be a little bit of tension between us three and Dave.
Robert Lombard: I told the band, “I’m gonna shoot in sections.” Alex would show up, we’d do some drum segments, then bass with Michael Anthony, then guitar, then David. I didn’t shoot them together until the end of the day. I was trying to keep peace, because I felt tension amongst them. David thought he was bigger than the rest of them.
I was in post-production with a rough cut of the video. I knew that if they kept it as a straight-on performance video, they would have a number one single. So I took the rough cut to Eddie’s house up in Coldwater Canyon and played it for him and his brother Alex. I said, “Guys, I’m taking a stand here. If you put in this crazy footage”–which later surfaced in “Panama,” after I was gone–“the video isn’t gonna have the impact it should have.” Eddie and Alex said, “We agree with you, one hundred percent. We’re not gonna release this video unless it’s done this way.”
Two days later, I got fired. Noel Monk, their manager, said, “You don’t do that–you don’t go behind Dave’s back. Here’s your check, never want to see you again.” That video won the award for best performance video at the first VMAs. And I still don’t have my award.
Pete Angelus: I think we spent less money making “Jump” than we did on having pizzas delivered to the set of “Hot for Teacher.”
Ann Carli: The legend was that “Jump” was a $5,000 video. David Lee Roth’s swinging on a rope, but he’s also playing right to camera. Nobody did that. That was a groundbreaking video, and it had an impact on how everybody looked at making videos.
It’s surreal to see Van Halen this early–complete with David Lee Roth wearing a pearl necklace. I wish I could find out who directed this, but I can’t. I did find out, thanks to the Van Halen News Desk, that it was filmed at the Whiskey A Go Go in 1977. Other than that, people bring up that it was done similarly to the way it was done live. There’s the alleged KISS impersonation rocking back and forth bit. Roth screws up a bit on the lip-syncing. The obvious crew members in the shots are funny. However, none of those things make this music video fun for me.
What I love is how the four of them act onstage. Alex seems to be into it, but is covered with smoke and focused on what he is doing. Eddie looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. David looks like he desperately wants more stage to work with. Michael appears to be having the time of his life. I can’t take my eyes off of him during the music video. He’s awesome. I know he would go on to make Hot For Teacher unintentionally funny in 1984 because he couldn’t dance, but I didn’t realize he was working his magic this far back.
As for the meaning of the song, if we’re going by Rock: It’s Your Decision (1982) logic, then clearly it’s Satanic. If we have brains, then it’s Van Halen’s Highway To Hell, and is mainly about life on the road. I’m not kidding about the Satanic part though. They got accused of that, because of course they did.
Through the Shattered Lens 