One break, comin' uuuuuup... ILM Artist Poll #75 - VAN HALEN (Voting thread)

1984 was better because they had a year to make the record. From what I understand, Diver Down and Fair Warning were pretty much done at the last minute with deadlines looming for their next tour to start.

@johnny fever: i'm revisiting the discography before i submit my ballot

like the whole discography

You'll get a ballot from me before the deadline. Just wrestling with the placement of some top fives. Also re-listening to some 5150 tracks to decide if I really like them or am just nostalgic for them.

i'm revisiting the discography before i submit my ballot

I've done that over the past couple days. A Different Kind of Truth really doesn't hold up as well as I'd thought it would, even though half the songs are originally from the 70s.

is Michael Anthony DRUNK BASS SOLO eligible

Also re-listening to some 5150 tracks to decide if I really like them or am just nostalgic for them.

Yeah, went through this too ... and I guess there are actually at least two ways to rock.

hot shoe burnin' down the avenue

David Lee Roth solo material not included in this poll?

i was wondering about that myself but it also makes sense

If we did, would we include Hagar material? Extreme? Montrose? etc.

I mean, I'd be surprised if anyone voted for any DLR beyond 1988 anyway.

not sure if I'll vote tbh but maybe. I really enjoy DLR era VH whenever I'm listening to it and yet outside of the big hits and the covers most of it whizzes by me in an indistinguishable blur. For example, I had no idea what song "Eruption" was for a v long time, even though I constantly saw it referenced. Similarly I cannot recall a single thing about "Unchained" after reading the refs in this thread.

I do have 1984 p much memorized though.

Skyscraper is a fundamental album for me. I was a David Lee Roth fan for years before I ever heard of VH.

freak

Sorry if Just Like Paradise was a better song than Finish What Ya Started.

If you're a Huey Lewis fan maybe.

I will be voting, but I can't pretend to be interested in anything after 1984. Roth was so charismatic, and Hagar........just wasn't.

The first album and WACF will probably comprise most of my ballot. Everybody Wants Some!!

I was a Huey Lewis fan, pplains. I was.

it'll be hard to make any room on my ballot for Van Hagar era but i'll try for a little just for the sake of variety. POUNDCAKE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLAaE07SW8

There's gonna be Van Hagar on my ballot, but I'll pass on the worst song that incarnation ever made, thanks.

..."When It's Love"?

That's bad too, but Poundcake is a whole 'nother level.

Feels So Good prob the most underrated/underappreciated Van Hagar-era single (and, after Beat It, possibly my favorite EVH solo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bOp8TqPq7c

Listened to VH-1 and Fair Warning tonight in prep for this poll. No surprises so far. Side poll for top five DLR squeak-eruptions?

I'm listening to Gazzaris Dance Contest 11-74+75. Sound is bad but band is good. I'd hoped that they had covered Bad Motor Scooter on there so I could vote for it. They didn't. but I'm having fun anyway.

pound cake no. 1 imo

I agree that EVH guitar work on OU812 is pretty overlooked. Does Black and Blue have the worst VH lyrics? Like AC/DC without the wink, all leer.

Black and Blue was such a weird first single choice for OU812 (and yeah, it's skeezy as hell).

Let me rep for one of my favorite Van Halen songs, the title track 5150. Always loved it.

xxxxpost I dunno, Poundcake is p inoffensive to me (musically at least). the shit like "Dreams" and "When It's Love", the generic AOR ballads, not to mention Hagar's screeching on those songs usually is what turned me off.

I did like "Humans Being" (sans Eddie's corny background vocals) from the Twister soundtrack tho

Sammy ballads are the worst.

I guess they work as a very clear demarcation that This Is New Version Of The Band That Is Older And More Wiser And Shit but bfd.

every one of em sounded like a Coke jingle

even the one on Balance that nobody remembers ("Not Enough"??)

CRYSTAL PEPSI!

seriously - the first time I heard "Right Now" on rock radio (1994 or so) I said "why the fuck are they playing an extended version of the Crystal Pepsi jingle" cos that was all I knew it from

also parts of "Can't Stop Loving You" reminded me of Laura Branigan's "Gloria" (albeit much much shittier)

xp There were so many jokey take-offs of the Right Now video at the time it came out iirc

1991-92 seems like a weird time for VH to get as big as they ever got, but that's my recollection of that time (and I haven't looked at any charts to substantiate that suspicion). They were omnipresent in the culture with the F.U.C.K. album.

I expect "Why Can't This Be Love" to do well.

I would have voted for Hagar's "Back Into You" ("all the way inside...every inch this time") because I love subtlety in song lyrics

On Fire is secretly the best song on the debut, btw.

I went with Ain't Talkin' as my #1 purely on sentimental value, but if I could take only one VH song into space on a one-way journey, it might be On Fire.

I'm the One is my jam

GOOD GOD Y'ALL

Xpost Van Hagar was significantly more successful than Van Halen, in terms of sales, charts, etc.

welllllll

Van Hagar had more #1 albums, but under Roth they have two diamond albums.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen_discography

I'd be curious to see a comparison of total sales, or when those albums went diamond.

http://www.guitarplayer.com/news/1024/roths-van-halen-sales-trounce-sammy-hagars-hold-on-there-dave/52326

Regardless, VH would be nothing without the Roth catalog.

Cumulatively the Roth years shifted more units in part because they recorded more albums. The first album was, like the first Cars album, a steady seller for years. Every record between it and 1984 is at least double platinum. The Van Hagar's biggest seller was 5150, which benefited from the 1984 juggernaut + the Hagar novelty + "Why Can't This Be Love." It's shipped six million.

speaking of 5150 they have no New Jerseys in their catalog, right? Every one of the Hagar albums has at least two singles that fans can still hum.

idk if most fans can hum "(Don't Tell Me) What Love Can Do" (tho I could)

^^^ seconding that title

voted!

Voting's closed! Thanks everybody.

how many ballots in all?

26!

That's plenty for a 40 song rollout I think.

i better wear a cup

side poll: best beat it solo on youtube

Since I didn't get it in on time, I'll just follow along the results and then post what my top 5 were gonna be.

Results-Have you seen Junior's grades?! ILM Artist Poll #75 - VAN HALEN (Results thread)

Was at a fancy dinner party hosted at an air bnb that had a nice turntable and a dumb selection of vinyl that ranged from George Benson to Taylor Swift to Sublime. Most were clearly there for show (or maybe as a weak effort to offer something for everybody), and some were even still wrapped. But not a copy of "1984," which I put on and which made everyone as happy as could be.