“Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” by Van Halen

As we have pointed out before, many of Van Halen’s classics are actually song centered on bedroom fun. And in terms of concealing such desires behind metaphors, this is one of the more-creative amongst the lot. The reason the singer “ain’t talkin’ ‘bout love” is because he is looking for casual sex – and nothing else – from the addressee. In other words, he is letting her know that he is interested solely in sex, not falling in love or getting into a serious relationship. And he is searching for a woman who also has a burning desire to simply have her sensual yearnings fulfilled.

So once again, we can see that David Lee Roth had quite a lot of confidence in his bedroom prowess. And as a side note, it can also be ascertained that songs propagating causal sex may not be as recent a phenomenon as some would think.

Facts about “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”

This is one of the singles from Van Halen’s self-titled debut album, which came out on 10 February 1978. And the label behind the song is Warner Bros. Records. The band’s famous bedroom fun song “Ice Cream Man” is also a product of this project.

Original Van Halen members David, Michael, Eddie and his older brother Alex are credited with writing this song. And the producer of the track is named Ted Templeman.

It is the late Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020) who is recognized as this track’s primary writer. He did so, in a single day, in David’s family home (i.e. the house of David’s parents). Concurrently he penned another song, “Bullethead”, which Van Halen didn’t release until 2012. And at first he actually kept “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love” to himself, as he wasn’t convinced his bandmates would like it. Moreover he intended it actually to satire the punk rock genre.

This song was sampled, without permission, by the controversial rap group 2 Live Crew on their 1989 track “The F**k Shop”. This resulted in Van Halen suing the Crew for doing so.

“Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love” has been noted as being one of the more enduring songs, in terms of listenability, in Van Halen’s catalog. It is therefore one of their significant signature songs. Other notable Van Halen tracks include:

• “Jump”
• “Panama”
• “Hot For Teacher“