Just Like Paradise

"Just Like Paradise"
Single by David Lee Roth
from the album Skyscraper
B-side"The Bottom Line"
ReleasedDecember 30, 1987 (1987-12-30)[1]
Genre
Length4:03
LabelWarner Bros.
Songwriters
Producers
David Lee Roth singles chronology
"Tobacco Road"
(1986)		 "Just Like Paradise"
(1987)		 "Stand Up"
(1988)
Music video
"Just Like Paradise" on YouTube

"Just Like Paradise" is a song by American rock singer David Lee Roth. Released after he left Van Halen, it was produced by Roth and guitarist Steve Vai. Serving as the lead single from Roth's second solo album, Skyscraper (1988), it reached the top 10 in the United States and Canada, topping the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart for four weeks.

Release and reception

Released in 1987, "Just Like Paradise" entered the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1988 and peaked at number six that March.[4] It also spent four weeks atop the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart.[5] The song peaked at eight in Canada,[6] number 27 in the United Kingdom,[7] number 13 in New Zealand, and number 77 in the Netherlands.[8]

Music critic Charles Bottomley called the song "a polished ode to decadence, with a chorus you would be unashamed to punch the air to".[9] AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia described it as an "ultra-saccharine" single that tries "too hard to achieve an exaggerated pop sheen".[10]

Music video

The video for the single was released in January 1988.[11] Like other Roth videos, it heavily featured live stage performance. Between are clips of Roth rock climbing at Half Dome shot by Emmy Award-winning mountain climbing photographer David Breashears.[12][13] "I started climbing when I was 11, in the Boy Scouts," he recalled. "It was a natural thing, plus you add in the books and comics and the movies. I'd say, 'Aw, I don't want to be the actor, I want to go to Arabia!"[14] The video concludes with Roth on a 28-foot surfboard gliding across a concert crowd.[15] "You ask four different people their impression of [the surfboard], you get six different responses," he observed. "I had a driver called Cowboy, a chopper pilot during the Tet Offensive. He said to me one day at rehearsal, 'Goddamn Dave: that reminds me of 'Nam… contour-flying over a hostile landing zone!' Then again, everything reminded Cowboy of 'Nam!"[14] Noisecreep ranked the video 10th on their list of the best David Lee Roth videos.[16]

Track listings

7-inch single

  1. "Just Like Paradise" (Roth, Tuggle) – 4:03
  2. "The Bottom Line" (Roth, Vai) – 3:37

UK 12-inch single

  1. "Just Like Paradise" (Roth, Tuggle) – 4:03
  2. "The Bottom Line" (Roth, Vai) – 3:37
  3. "Yankee Rose" (Roth, Vai) – 3:47

Charts

References

  1. ↑ "The Best" CD liner notes (1997)
  2. ↑ Brannigan, Paul (October 10, 2016). "The Top 10 Best David Lee Roth songs". loudersound. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  3. ↑ Popoff, Martin (2014). The big book of hair metal : the illustrated oral history of heavy metal's debauched decade. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Voyageur Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-7603-4546-7. OCLC 858901054.
  4. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (8th ed.). New York: Billboard Books. p. 543. ISBN 978-0-8230-7499-0.
  5. 1 2 "David Lee Roth Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Top RPM Singles: Image 0953". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  7. 1 2 "Official Singles Chart on 19/3/1988 – Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  8. 1 2 "David Lee Roth – Just Like Paradise". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  9. ↑ Buckley, Peter, ed. (2003). The Rough Guide Rock: The Definitive Guide to More than 1200 Artists and Bands (3rd ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 887. ISBN 978-1-84353-105-0.
  10. ↑ Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Skyscraper – Review". Allmusic (Rovi Corporation). Retrieved February 6, 2010.
  11. ↑ "David Lee Roth – "Just Like Paradise"". mvdbase.com. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  12. ↑ David Breashears (October 11, 2008). "Filmography: David Breashears". DavidBreashears.com. Archived from the original on May 19, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  13. ↑ Jeff Giles (October 11, 2013). "Weekend Songs: David Lee Roth, 'Just Like Paradise'". Ultimateclassicrock.com. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  14. 1 2 Swift, David (December 3, 1988). "I laugh to win". NME. p. 20.
  15. ↑ "David Lee Roth On Larry King 1988". January 22, 1988. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved June 17, 2016 – via YouTube.
  16. ↑ Ford, Chris (October 10, 2013). "10 Best David Lee Roth Videos". Noisecreep. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  17. ↑ "Playlist Report: RAI – Italy" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 5, no. 11. March 12, 1988. p. 6.
  18. ↑ "David Lee Roth – Just Like Paradise" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  19. ↑ "David Lee Roth Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  20. ↑ "Top 100 Singles of '88" (PDF). RPM. Vol. 49, no. 10. December 24, 1988. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 1, 2019. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  21. ↑ "1988 The Year in Music & Video: Top Pop Singles". Billboard. Vol. 100, no. 52. December 24, 1988. p. Y-20.
  22. ↑ "Billboard Top 100 – 1988". Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  23. ↑ "1988 The Year in Music & Video: Top Album Rock Tracks". Billboard. Vol. 100, no. 52. December 24, 1988. p. Y-22.
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