I'll Wait - 2015 Remaster

"I'll Wait" was written as a collaboration between the Van Halen group members and former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald. The singer was brought in by producer Ted Templeman, who had a long professional relationship with the Doobie Brothers. McDonald recalled to Uncut: "Van Halen had cut the track - the chord progression and the arrangement was already recorded and they needed some lyrics and a melody to go over that. Ted asked me to help out, so I sat down with David Lee Roth in Ted's office at Warner Brothers and wrote out a lyric. Just to show you the difference between that band and our band as far as record sales, I probably made more money as a one fifth writer on that song than I did on the entire Doobie Brothers album the subsequent year."

According to ClassicVanHalen.com, the synthesizer-driven song is about a girl wearing men's underwear in a Calvin Klein print media ad. Roth tacked the picture next to a Sony Trinitron TV and he and McDonald addressed the lyrics to her.

This was the second single from Van Halen's album 1984, following "Jump." Both songs are heavy on synthesizer, a new sound for the band that risked putting off some core fans. "Jump," a very radio friendly track, went to #1 in February 1984; "I'll Wait" which reached #13 in June, had more rock edge and served as a transition to the next singles, "Panama" and "Hot For Teacher," both guitar-driven and more in line with classic Van Halen.