Van Halen’s Producer “Wasn’t Wild” About “Jump” at First—in Fact, It’s Still Not One of His Favorite Songs

If you’re an 80s music fan, there’s very little chance that you haven’t heard Van Halen‘s “Jump”. The song, released in 1984, took the music world by storm with its crazy synthesizers that melded pop and rock and ultimately became Van Halen’s career-defining song because of that. The success of the song, however, is a little bit ironic, mostly because Van Halen producer Ted Templeman didn’t think that much of it when he heard it for the first time. He talked about this in a 2020 Rolling Stone interview. 

The producer, who worked on the group’s first six albums, shared that “Jump” was the only time he ever butted heads with guitarist Eddie Van Halen. Apparently, when the song was first being fleshed out, Van Halen went and got Templeman at three in the morning to listen to it. To this day, he still says it’s still “not one of [his] favorite things.”

“I was wrong because it was Number One, but I don’t even listen to it,” he shared. “To me, they were a heavy-metal f—ing band that could do pop tunes; that’s what I liked about ’em. But that took it into another arena. It reminded me of those bands that play in arenas, and then the f—ing thing ended up getting played at every arena before a game. But look, I was wrong.”

For Templeman, it was the keyboards, the very thing that the song is known for, that he “wasn’t wild” about.

Templeman Speaks Highly of His Friend, Eddie Van Halen

In October of 2020, Eddie Van Halen passed away from a stroke after battling throat cancer. Templeman talked about his relationship with the guitarist in an interview with Billboard, sharing that they texted every day, even when Eddie became unable to speak. 

The two collaborators met in 1977 at the Starwood in West Hollywood, when Eddie was playing a show. Templeman was immediately impressed with Eddie’s guitar skills and even brought a Warner Bros. executive to see the band. This led to them getting signed and eventually releasing Van Halen.

However, Eddie and Templeman would grow to have a friendship that extended beyond the music. 

“For me, [Eddie was] kind of like a brother. You wouldn’t believe what a sweet person that he was. One of the sweetest guys I ever knew. Just a wonderful guy.”

Speaking of their bond, he shared, “It had nothing to do with music, you know what I mean? It was just hanging out. I’d never really gotten that kind of close with any artist.”

Photo by: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images