David Lee Roth was using excessive at the start of 1988 — however his descent again to Earth started with the underperforming “Stand Up,” launched as a single that April.

The previous Van Halen frontman had launched his sophomore solo album Skyscraper in January 1988. True to its title, the LP climbed to No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum, propelled by the High 10 lead single “Simply Like Paradise.”

However not all people appreciated the sonic left flip of Skyscraper, which discovered Roth abandoning his bread-and-butter laborious rock of 1986’s Eat ‘Em and Smile in favor of keyboard-heavy pop-rock, lounge-lizard camp and eclectic experimentation. After the funky dance-rocker “Stand Up” stalled at No. 64 on the Sizzling 100 — Roth’s final solo track to hit the chart — Skyscraper grew to become seen because the second when the singer’s profession started a decline from which it will by no means get better.

It was the end result of one in all rock’s most well-known divorce tales. After splitting with Van Halen in 1985, Roth put collectively an all-star backing band comprising guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Gregg Bissonette for Eat ‘Em and Smile. The raunchy, tongue-in-cheek romp was well-received by followers and critics, hitting the High 10 and going platinum, and it gave Roth some bragging rights over his outdated mates in Van Halen, who had launched the blander (however better-selling) 5150 round the identical time.

Two years later got here Skyscraper and — after the glow of “Simply Like Paradise” wore off and the video for “Stand Up” hit MTV rotation — the turbulence. Sheehan and Vai each exited Roth’s band shortly after the album’s launch, reportedly dissatisfied along with his new musical route. The accepted view grew to become that Roth was an egomaniacal management freak who did not know what to do along with his personal profession.

“It was actually fulfilling to be in Dave Roth’s band all these years,” Vai instructed Basic Rock in 2022. “However I had the correct quantity of it.”

Watch David Lee Roth’s ‘Stand Up’ Video

Through the years, Skyscraper has loved a optimistic reappraisal amongst some followers, and Vai seemed again fondly on co-producing the LP with Roth. “Dave and I had been having fun with working collectively a lot that we created our personal little manufacturing workforce,” he stated. “We simply began chipping away at it and we stated, ‘Let’s simply proceed the best way we’re going and see what we give you.'”

Vai additionally took some duty for the sound of Skyscraper, which was much less aggressive than the Ted Templeman-produced Eat ‘Em and Smile. “Dave and I had been simply actually forensic,” he instructed EonMusic, “as a result of it was his first manufacturing outing, and he is received nice ears and all — however we in all probability lacked being producers that made rock and roll information as a profession.”

Sheehan additionally had sort phrases for his former boss. In a 2022 interview with Speak Louder (by way of Blabbermouth), the bassist referred to as working with Roth “like getting a PhD in Present Biz 101 — he knew it in and out.” Though Sheehan “did not just like the outcomes” of Skyscraper personally, he admitted that “it takes quite a lot of braveness to make that type of a flip. I give him credit score for the braveness.”

To modern ears, “Stand Up” actually would not sound just like the ’70s laborious rock that birthed Van Halen, or the ’80s steel scene that ran parallel to Eat ‘Em and Smile. As a substitute, it is nearer to straight-ahead ’80s pop, carried out by first-rate musicians, in the identical method that Michael Jackson was as soon as backed by guitar virtuoso Jennifer Batten.

Roth defined his musical motivations clearly in interviews from the time. “It’s important to have an impenetrable spirit,” he instructed MuchMusic’s Steve Anthony in 1988. “You’ll be able to’t query — I by no means do — about whether or not it should be a well-liked or a profitable factor, so long as I am doing it true to my spirit when it comes to: Is that this the best way I actually wished it to sound? Is that this what we actually like? Is that this what we actually consider right here?”

Vai echoed this sentiment a long time later. “You get a man like Dave Roth, and he is accomplished a lot in a technique and, he wished to attempt one thing completely different,” the guitarist instructed Basic Rock. “That is the artist’s artistic prerogative.”