Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1980
And the Cradle Will Rock...
Buy And the Cradle Will Rock... now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = And the Cradle Will Rock...
| cover = Van Halen - And the Cradle Will Rock.jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Van Halen
| album = Women and Children First
| B-side =
*"Everybody Wants Some!!"
*"Loss of Control"
| released = (US)
| recorded = December 1979February 1980
| studio =
| genre = Hard rock
| length = 3:31
| label = Warner Bros.
| writer =
*Michael Anthony
*Alex Van Halen
*Eddie Van Halen
*David Lee Roth
| producer = Ted Templeman
| prev_title = Beautiful Girls
| prev_year = 1979
| next_title = So This Is Love?
| next_year = 1981
| misc =
}}
"'And the Cradle Will Rock...'" is a song written and performed by Van Halen. It appears on their 1980 album 'Women and Children First'. It was one of two singles from the album; the other is the B-side "Everybody Wants Some!!". It is also the first song released by the band that featured the keyboard playing of Eddie Van Halen.
Chuck Klosterman of Vulture.com ranked it the 50th-best Van Halen song, writing "Ive always found it a bit ponderous and uncompromisingly average, but Ive also listened to it somewhere in the vicinity of 8,000 times."
Composition
The song begins with what sounds like a guitar, but is, in fact, a flanger-effected Wurlitzer electric piano played through Eddie Van Halen's 1960s model 100-watt Marshall Plexi amplifier. During live performances on the 1980 tour, Michael Anthony would play the keyboards.
Reception
'Cash Box' called the song a "tongue-in-cheek anthem," saying that "David Lee Roth's acrobatic vocal leaps are in fine form," that Eddie Van Halen provides "sonic lead guitar blasts" and that the song has "industrial strength rhythms."
Eric Carr of KISS played "And the Cradle Will Rock..." along with Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me" as part of his audition tape, which successfully led to his becoming the new drummer for KISS.
Charts
References
Further reading
*
Category:Van Halen songs
Category:1980 singles
Category:Song recordings produced by Ted Templeman
Category:Songs written by Michael Anthony (musician)
Category:Songs written by Alex Van Halen
Category:Songs written by Eddie Van Halen
Category:Songs written by David Lee Roth
Category:1980 songs
Category:Warner Records singles
Buy And the Cradle Will Rock... now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1980