When Van Halen was working on their sixth album, 1984, the band was stuck on one track: “I’ll Wait.” Producer Ted Templeman, who worked with Michael McDonald when he was in the Doobie Brothers, asked if he would help work through the song with Van Halen.
“Ted Templeman called me up and said, ‘Hey, these guys have a track and they need some lyrics, so I mentioned you could do it and they said fine, so why don’t you come down?’” remembered McDonald. “He sent me the track, and I got some ideas going so I’d have something when I got to the studio.”
McDonald added, “I met David Lee Roth at Ted’s office. That was … an interesting experience. He kinda liked what I had going, so we sat there in the office with the demo playing on a cassette recorder, singing lines and melodies.”
Photo of Van Halen, Circa 1984 (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
After some tweaks, McDonald worked his magic on the Van Halen track, and “I’ll Wait” went to No. 13 and peaked at No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock Chart.
You’ve got me captured, I’m under your spell
I guess I’ll never learn
I have your picture, yes, I know it well
Another page is turned
Are you for real? It’s so hard to tell
From just a magazine
Yeah, you just smile, and the picture sells
Look what that does to me
I’ll wait ’til your love comes down
I’m coming straight for your heart
No way you can stop me now
As fine as you are
I wrote a letter and told her these words
That meant a lot to me
I never sent it, she wouldn’t have heard
Her eyes don’t follow me
Credits
For years, McDonald’s consgiwritng credit was left off 1984 until the album was remastered and reissued years later. The song is credited to McDonald, Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony.
“I guess they thought I was Santa Claus because I had to go chasing them a little bit on that one,” recalled McDonald. “It’s probably one of the most-played things I’ve ever written, just because it’s Van Halen. That album sold three or four million copies right away, which was a really big deal at the time.”
Photo: David Redfern/Redferns