“Panama” by Van Halen

"Panama" was the third US single from Van Halen's 1984, and despite the title it has nothing to do with Central America. David Lee Roth wrote it after a reporter sneered that he only sang about women, partying and fast cars, and Roth realized he'd never actually done a song about fast cars. So he wrote one about a car he'd watched racing in Las Vegas, the "Panama Express" (his own Opel Kadett was called Panama, too).

Eddie Van Halen said the music took its cue from AC/DC's straight-ahead three-chord rock, and it's a full-throttle ride: Eddie's riff peeling out, Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen driving hard, Roth hollering like he owns the highway. In the bridge you can hear Eddie revving his 1972 Lamborghini Miura S, which was backed up to the studio with microphones on the exhaust. Ted Templeman produced.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.