Van Halen "Panama (Single & Video)"

"Panama" is a song by the American hard rock band Van Halen. It was the third single released from the album 1984.

The song was reportedly written about a car. In an interview with Howard Stern, lead singer David Lee Roth explained the meaning behind the song. Although the song features some suggestive lyrics, it is about a car that Roth saw race in Las Vegas; its name was "Panama Express", hence the title of the song.

Panama was also the name of Roth's Opel Kadett. He had the hood and bumper mounted in his hallway, which can be seen in his video for "SHOOBop". He has a stuffed deer's behind crashing through the front windshield. A plaque underneath reads, "Your First Deer, courtesy of Panama."

Roth wrote the song after being accused by a reporter of singing about only women, partying, and fast cars. He realized he'd never written a song about fast cars, and decided to write one.

During the bridge of the song where Roth says "I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off," guitarist Eddie Van Halen can be heard revving his 1972 Lamborghini Miura S in the background. The car was backed up to the studio and microphones were attached to the exhaust pipe to record the sound for the song.

The song is in the key of E major, having a moderate rock common time tempo of 144 beats per minute.

The music video for the song, directed by Pete Angelus, features mostly on-stage performances by the band. The video was shot at Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island during a soundcheck and concert.

The car shown in the music video is a heavily customized 1951 Mercury Eight convertible - notably not "Panama Express", the Opel or the Miura.

At 1'41" a pop poster by Milton Glaser is featured on the wall by the left of the piano at which EVH is seated while blowing rings of smoke with his mouth. The poster resembled the art of Heinz Edelmann who was involved in the Yellow Submarine (film) and was the inspiration for the cover of the later 1989 LP Oranges & Lemons (album) by XTC.

Chuck Klosterman of Vulture.com ranked it the fourth-best Van Halen song, calling it the "strongest pure riff in the catalogue."

The song was used in season 4 episode 15 of The Drew Carey Show, when Mimi Bobeck tried to drive Drew Carey from his house using bright lights and the song Panama on loop for three consecutive days.

The St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball play the song after home wins at Busch Stadium.

The song is featured in the racing game Gran Turismo 4, included in the North American release and is played during the game's opening movie.

The song was prominently featured in "Coma Guy," a 2020 episode of the animated TV series Family Guy, in which Peter mistakes the album 1984 for a book-on-CD of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and becomes addicted to the song.

This song was also featured in the 2007 Judd Apatow film "Superbad".