Panama
by Van Halen
- 144
- BPM
- Ab major
- Key
- 4B
- Camelot
- 53
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
The video for "Panama" by Van Halen was shot on tour. Most of it was filmed at The Spectrum in Philadelphia over two nights, during the show and at soundcheck, with portions from an earlier date at the Providence Civic Center in Rhode Island. The car in the video is a heavily customized 1951 Mercury Eight convertible, a car with no connection to the song.
The song is about a car David Lee Roth saw race in Las Vegas, called Panama Express. Panama was also the name of his Opel Kadett. Roth wrote the song after a reporter accused him of singing only about women, partying and fast cars. He realized he had never written one about fast cars. Eddie Van Halen said he took the musical inspiration from the straightforward three chord rock of AC/DC.
Eddie also contributed a car of his own. During the bridge, he can be heard revving his 1972 Lamborghini Miura S, which was backed up to the studio with microphones attached to the exhaust pipe. "Panama" was the third US single from the album 1984.
Panama runs at 144 BPM, the tempo of dubstep and trap counted in half time, and hardstyle. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.67 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 417 ms. It is in Ab major, Camelot 4B, which shares its notes with F minor and mixes cleanly with Db major and Eb major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.