And the Cradle Will Rock...

"And the Cradle Will Rock...", from the Women and Children First album, was our introduction to Eddie Van Halen as a keyboardist. The keyboard parts were played on a Wurlitzer electric piano. The sound was fed into his MXR Flanger, then his Marshall. Oddly enough, the song's intro was written using a guitar in the band's tour bus. Two keys on the piano were broken while recording because Eddie was pounding on them so hard. The Wurlitzer that was used to record this song was used to write another Van Halen song before the release of Women and Children First. On the day Eddie bought the piano he wrote Jump.

The song later appeared on the Best of Volume 1 album.

On stage the keyboard lines were played by Michael Anthony.