Van Halen - 1984 (written as MCMLXXXIV on the album's front cover) is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen . It remains Van Halen's most successful album in terms of sales, with 10 million copies shipped in the United States, and U.S. chart performance. 1984 reached number two on the Billboard 200 album chart and remained there for five weeks, behind Michael Jackson's Thriller .