“Ice Cream Man” by Van Halen

by Amanda London· Published October 7, 2020· Updated October 7, 2020

Anyone familiar with Van Halen’s early classics know that the boys had quite a bit of libido, which came through in their music. And in reality the lyrics of “Ice Cream Man”, despite being terse, are relatedly quite-explicit. However their explicitness is concealed by a clever metaphor – or at least one that may be able to fool a child. And that is the singer exclaiming that he is the “ice cream man”. Fundamentally, that’s another way of saying that he’s aroused and desires the targeted female addressees of the song.

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So basically any allusions he makes to ice cream, in terms of shouting out different “flavors” for instance, are all meant to point to his sexual prowess. And conclusively, this is one of the types of songs where the male singer goes about assuring a lady he wants to sleep with that in that regard he can guarantee her a good time.

Facts about “Ice Cream Man”

This track can be found on the band’s first album, which itself is entitled “Van Halen”. The song was released during April of 1978, being published by Warner Bros. Records.

The writer of this track is actually an early 20^th century blues’ artist by the name of John Brim (1922-2003). And it was he who originally recorded it back in 1953, a good two decades before Van Halen’s rendition. And out of the members of the band, it was David Lee Roth in particular who had an affinity for the tune. In fact it has been noted that he regularly performed it along with the rest of the band well before they actually recorded and released it.

Moreover the acoustic guitar played during the intro, as well as the vocals throughout the first verse, were rendered by Roth.

“Ice Cream Man” was produced by Ted Templeman. Templeman worked extensively with Van Halen. He produced most of their biggest hits, including “Jump“.