Liner Notes · No. 023
"Jump" by Van Halen: the B-side
Quick hall pass: the riff your gym teacher played at every pep rally opened a Spielberg movie, sold Christmas burgers, and got a bluegrass makeover with Roth on vocals. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- Other films that borrowed "Jump": Big Daddy (1999), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Sing (2016) and Despicable Me 3 (2017). A talking Volkswagen and a Minion movie. Range. (Songfacts)
- Ahead of the London 2012 Olympics, "Jump" topped a PRS for Music poll of the most popular sporting songs. (Songfacts)
- On October 24, 2025, Wolfgang Van Halen's band Mammoth released its third album, The End. (Blabbermouth)
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
Ready Player One, Eddie the Eagle and a McDonald's Christmas
Spielberg opened Ready Player One with it, a ski jumping movie scored its finale with it, and McDonald's UK sold Christmas with it.
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The opening scene: In 2018, Steven Spielberg put "Jump" over the opening of Ready Player One, per Songfacts. A movie about kids obsessed with 80s pop culture opens with an 80s keyboard riff. Spielberg read the room. The room was your basement in 1984.
The underdog: Eddie the Eagle (2016) tells the true-ish story of British ski jumper Michael "Eddie" Edwards, with Taron Egerton as Eddie and Hugh Jackman as a fictional coach. Time Out describes its "punch-the-air finale" as scored with "Jump." A song called "Jump" in a ski jumping movie. Subtle, Hollywood. Very subtle.
The drive-thru: In November 2023, McDonald's UK used it in a 90-second Christmas commercial. Nothing says peace on earth like a guitar band's synth riff and a Happy Meal.
That's the movies. Now a stage it showed up on decades later. Quiz time.
When Bruce Springsteen opened a 2014 Dallas show with "Jump," who played Eddie's guitar solo?
No Googling. We'll know.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- The Rock Hall night Roth skipped, the 2007 reunion tour with a 16-year-old on bass, Springsteen's tip-off, and the last encore.
- The covers: a hushed 1985 B-side, Paul Anka in swing, a bluegrass version with Roth singing, and Dave Grohl's keytar sidekick.
- Where they are now: Alex's memoir, Roth's 2026 tour, and Sammy Hagar's open invitation.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
The Rock Hall, the reunion, the Boss and the last encore
Roth skipped the 2007 Rock Hall, rejoined for the reunion tour, Springsteen opened a show with it, and it was Eddie's final encore in 2015.
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1984, the last lap: The 1984 tour was Van Halen's last with David Lee Roth for more than two decades. He left the band in 1985, and Sammy Hagar replaced him. The spandex went into storage. The hair did not.
2007, the Hall: On March 12, 2007, Van Halen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York. Only Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony showed up. Roth stayed away, and the Hall's CEO said Roth had been offered a song of his choice with the house band. Free stage, free band, his pick of songs. He passed. Somewhere a cover band in Ohio would have taken that offer before the sentence ended.
2007, the reunion: On September 27, 2007, the reunion tour with Roth opened at Charlotte Bobcats Arena, the band's first tour with him since 1984. Eddie's 16-year-old son Wolfgang played bass in place of Michael Anthony, and "Jump" was a nightly favorite. At 16, most of us were bagging groceries. Wolfgang was on an arena stage covering his dad's catalog.
2014, the Boss: As the quiz spoiled, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band opened a free NCAA March Madness Music Festival show in Dallas on April 6, 2014, with "Jump." The show started with a referee tip-off between Springsteen and Nils Lofgren. Tom Morello played Eddie's solo and Charlie Giordano took the keyboard solo. The only basketball game in history where the halftime show came first.
2015, the last encore: On October 4, 2015, Eddie played his final concert with Van Halen, at the Hollywood Bowl. Earlier that night, Roth told him onstage that those were the best years of his life. The band closed with "Jump" as the encore.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
The covers (one of them is a lounge act)
A hushed Aztec Camera B-side, Paul Anka's lounge swing, a bluegrass take with Roth and Dave Grohl on keytar duty. Vote below.
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- 1985 · Aztec Camera. Roddy Frame slowed it to a hush, with sparse acoustic guitar and piano, as the B-side of "All I Need Is Everything." The opposite of a jump. More of a gentle sit.
- 2005 · Paul Anka. A horn-driven swing version on his album Rock Swings. Vegas lounge Van Halen. Bring your own martini.
- 2006 · The John Jorgenson Band feat. David Lee Roth. A bluegrass version on a 2006 tribute album, with Roth himself singing. Spandex, meet banjo.
- 2021 · Dave Grohl & Greg Kurstin. Night four of the 2021 Hanukkah Sessions, posted December 1, 2021. Grohl on drums and vocals, Kurstin on synth with a keytar solo, both copying moves from the 1984 video. The caption hailed Roth as maybe "the loudest and proudest of hard rocking Jews." Two grown men, one keytar, zero shame. Correct.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Jump" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Where the brothers and the singers are now
Eddie Van Halen died in 2020, at 65. Alex wrote a memoir for him, Roth cancelled most of his 2026 tour, and Sammy sent an invite.
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Eddie: Eddie Van Halen died on October 6, 2020, at 65, after a long battle with cancer, his son Wolfgang said. He wrote that riff, and he changed how the guitar is played.
Alex: On October 22, 2024, Alex Van Halen published Brothers (HarperCollins), a memoir he called a love letter to Eddie.
Diamond Dave: In 2026, David Lee Roth launched a 30-date solo tour on April 16, later extended into September. In late July he cancelled nearly all of the remaining dates, keeping only an August 7 show in Sturgis, South Dakota. No reason was given.
Sammy: Sammy Hagar answered with a video wishing Roth well and inviting him to sing a couple of songs at Hagar's "Best of All Worlds" Las Vegas residency in September 2026, which Hagar plays with former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony. Forty years of the Dave-versus-Sammy debate, and Sammy just sent a dinner invite. Whether Roth showed up, we don't know. Your uncle still won't let the argument go either way.
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