“D.O.A.” by Van Halen

"D.O.A." comes roaring off Van Halen II, the band's second album, which Warner Bros turned loose in March 1979, and like the rest of that record it was cut in a hurry. They walked into Sunset Studio a week after wrapping their first world tour and had the whole album in the can inside another week.

The writing credit, words and music, is split four ways among David Lee Roth, Edward Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony. Roth sings lead, Eddie handles the guitar, Alex the drums and Anthony the bass, with Ted Templeman producing and Donn Landee engineering. Plenty of the album's songs were older than the debut, kicking around on demos the band made with Gene Simmons in 1976 and with Templeman in 1977, which helps explain how a week was all it took.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.