AOR Blog: Album Oriented Rock

In 1978, disco was on the rise, and the Bee Gees and Saturday Night Fever were taking over the pop landscape. It was a dark time for rock and roll fans. A bright ray of hope appeared when Van Halen exploded out of Pasadena, California with their self-titled debut album. Van Halen (#19 Pop Albums) is rightly considered a classic, with tracks such as “Runnin’ With the Devil”, “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”, “You Really Got Me (their cover of the Kinks song)”, and Eddie Van Halen’s blistering solo work in “Eruption”. It was an album that inspired a generation of guitar players, and continues to inspire to this day.

Van Halen II (#6 Pop Albums), came out the next year and repeated the party-album feel of the debut, though just not quite as well. The band did land its first big hit on the Pop Singles chart, however, as “Dance the Night Away”, climbed to #15.

Van Halen continued to churn out an album every year or so, getting heavier with Women and Children First (1980) and Fair Warning (1981), and loading up on covers for Diver Down (1982) before achieving massive success with 1984 (1984) and its #1 Pop single “Jump”. It was at this point that conflicts between Eddie and lead singer David Lee Roth boiled over and Roth left Van Halen for a solo career. Of course, Van Halen, the band, survived as they recruited Sammy Hagar to take over lead vocals and continued their rock and pop chart success throughout the 80s and 90s.

Call my a VH purist, but I prefer the party-hearty, showman style of the Roth era over the workman-like pop leanings of the Hagar era. I like Sammy’s stuff, just not as much. While Van Halen has had many hits throughout the years, this playlist is not about the hits, it’s about standout album tracks that came out during the first Roth era. I say first because Roth returned to Van Halen in 2006. Sammy left (or was fired) once and was replaced by Gary Cherone (1996-1999), then returned from 2003-2005 and left (or was fired) again. Unfortunately, original bassist Michael Anthony is no longer in the band, as he was replaced with Eddie’s son Wolfgang. The return of Roth and the addition of Wolfgang was showcased in Van Halen’s successful 2007-2008 World Tour. The band has not released any new albums since Van Halen III (1998), which was the only album to feature Cherone.

Here are some standout album tracks from Van Halen 1978-1984, with a couple of bonus tracks thrown in for good measure. For any Van Halen fan, I highly recommend picking up the remastered HDCD versions of Van Halen, Van Halen II, Women and Children First, Fair Warning, Diver Down, and 1984, as the sound quality is amazing.

Playlist

From Van Halen (1978)

Little Dreamer – Probably the most underrated track on the first album, where every track is great.

From Van Halen II (1979)

Women in Love – Great intro by Eddie on this one.
You’re No Good – Excellent cover of Linda Ronstadt’s 1975 #1 hit, itself of a cover of Betty Everett’s 1964 hit.

From Women and Children First (1980)

Take Your Whiskey Home – Cool party track with a bluesy intro by Dave and Eddie.

In a Simple Rhyme – Van Halen’s first attempt at a ballad, with somewhat sentimental lyrics and great chorus harmonies anchored by Michael Anthony.

From Fair Warning (1981)

Dirty Movies – Fair Warning is my favorite Van Halen album, and it is universally regarded as their darkest. This track is a little more light-hearted; the tale of a prom queen-turned porn star. The highlight for me is Michael Anthony’s bass work.

From Diver Down (1982)

Diver Down was the first Van Halen record I bought, via my Columbia Record and Tape Club membership, and paid for with my afternoon paper route. It was 1981 and I was 12 and beginning to get into arena rock, when I wasn’t spending all my money at the arcade. It was Van Halen’s hit cover of Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” that attracted me to the album, and Eddie’s awesome and ominous instrumental track “Intruder” that flows into “Oh, Pretty Woman” that really hooked me. The fact that Diver Down has five cover songs on it means that is probably overlooked more than any of VH’s other early albums. I wish I still had the vinyl …

Where Have All the Good Times Gone? – Van Halen’s second cover of a Kinks tune. The Kinks version was released in the US in 1966.

Secrets – A cool mid-tempo laid back lazy afternoon track.

From 1984 (1984)

Drop Dead Legs – The 1984 album had four of its nine tracks chart as singles, but Drop Dead Legs was not one of them. It remains my second favorite track on the album, behind Panama (#13, Hot 100).

From Best of Volume 1 (1996)

Me Wise Magic – In 1996, with Sammy in the band, Van Halen put out a Best of album that featured two new tracks with David Lee Roth on vocals. Sammy was pissed, left the band, Gary Cherone replaced him, etc. Although not from the classic era, the track Me Wise Magic shows what might have been if Roth would have rejoined the band in 1996. Roth’s growling vocals contribute to the dark feel of the track.

From The Wild Life Soundtrack (1984)

Eddie Van Halen did the score for The Wild Life, Cameron Crowe’s 1984  followup to the much better received Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Unfortunately, only one of Eddie’s tracks was included on the soundtrack: “Donut City”. Eddie is not proud of his score for the film to this day so we will probably never see it commercially released. There is a Van Halen bootleg called Dawn of 5150 that features some cool excerpts from the score.

So what do you think? Are there other Van Halen non-hits you would add to the playlist? Disagree with my choices? Post your suggestions in the comments.