Album · Van Halen
Women and Children First by Van Halen
Women and Children First is an album by Van Halen, released in 1980. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 120 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “And the Cradle Will Rock”, on 74 lists with a best position of #2.
Women and Children First, Van Halen's third album, hit the shops on Warner Bros. on March 26, 1980, and it's where the Pasadena party band started to sound a whole lot meaner. Ted Templeman produced again, with Donn Landee engineering at Sunset Sound, and for the first time there's not a single cover song on the thing: Eddie Van Halen, his older brother Alex on drums, David Lee Roth up front and Michael Anthony on bass carried the whole show on their own material.
The sound got heavier, and the mood a shade darker. "And the Cradle Will Rock" comes stomping in like a wrecking crew, and "Everybody Wants Some" is a tribal pound with Roth hollering his come-ons over guitar that sounds like it's trying to escape the speakers. Less sunshine, more sweat, and every bit as loud as you'd hope.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Women and Children First on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | And the Cradle Will Rock | 74 | #2 | – | 1980–2026 | |
| 2 | Everybody Wants Some | 46 | #72 | – | 1980–2026 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.