The 80's Never Ended: Vol. III - Van Halen

Crazy things that happened last week: The Loch Ness Monster washed ashore, Bigfoot walked into a Walmart to buy electric clippers, aliens landed in Roswell and explained their intergalactic joke, and oh yeah, Van Halen reunited with original front man David Lee Roth and released a CD of new music. OK, so only one of those things really happened....but if you had checked the Vegas bookies a year or two ago, all these events would probably have had the same odds for and against. The long-standing feud between the brothers-Van Halen and their lead singer, well, ANY lead singer, pre-date the internet, compact discs and hybrid vehicles. So what does Van Halen have to offer to the 21st century?

WHERE THEY ARE (FOR) NOW:

"A Different Kind of Truth" was released on February 7th. The lead single "Tattoo" hit radio (officially) on January 10th to much fanfare and constant play on rock and classic rock radio stations around the world. Within a week of the single's release, it sat atop the iTunes Rock list as the #1 download for the US, Canada, Finland & The Netherlands (Birthplace of the Van Halens: Eddie & Alex). The song also charted in Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Britain.

If you haven't heard the tune yet, you've obviously not turned on a radio lately. Currently, the video for the song has 3.3 MILLION hits on YouTube. The song has also been played on the band's FaceBook page over 3 million times. If the advance interest (hype?) is any indication, I would expect the CD to be the #1 album on the Billboard Charts this week, maybe for a few weeks.

"So, how does "Tattoo" sound?" the casually-aware-of-Van Halen average person might ask. Don't think of Van Halen circa "1984" with jumping synthesizer lines and make-your-ears-wanna-bleed squeaks and squeals from lead singer Roth, or Eddie Van Halen's guitar. "Tattoo" is more of a smoke-throat-trailer-park-swagger kind of tune. Sure, the guitar still wails at the prerequisite solo, the bass still thumps along (albeit with less flare and skill than previous efforts, for reasons we'll cover later) and the drums still have that smash, bash & crash hallmark quality of a Van Halen track, but the performance of lead singer David Lee Roth is a pale comparison of his former presence.

Where 1984 "Diamond Dave" would (more often than not) sing with the vibrato and octave of an alley cat, he sounds more like an old porch dog on "Tattoo" and the rest of "A Different Kind of Truth". Whether through age or lifestyle, some of the polish has worn off of old-Dave's style. He uses his former vocal prowess more sparingly, choosing to emphasize a key phrase now and then, while the rest of the song is more like -Your crazy Uncle pulls you in closer and says "let me tell you a story" treatment. While a different approach than some Van Halen fans would have liked to hear, it works perfectly for "Tattoo". This is a grinding, dirty sounding song that celebrates the seedier side of human nature and wraps it in a sing-along one word chorus chant of "Tattoo, Tattoo." Barflies around the world have undoubtedly raised a beer-clenching hand and yelled "Oh Yeah!" as the song began playing.

Per the song's lyrics: "Why is the crazy stuff we'd never say, poetry in ink?" and "Show me you, I'll show you me.". Van Halen holds up their (presumed) fan base and sings a song about THEM for a change. The subject matter is very here and now, as tattoos are a part of this next-generation's everyday life albeit as "body art".....stress the ART. For the record, my ultra-conservative, church going wife has a tattoo. Its in a tasteful place, and although she's more apt to listen to a "new country" song than the "stuff they call rock music these days", she's been seen on more than one occasion subtlety head banging in the car when I play the CD. I smile on the inside because she was a "Van Hagar" fan. We'll get to that later, but now, on to the rest of the new CD.

After the chants of "Tattoo" have faded from the speakers, the listener gets a little taste of Van Halen, circa 1975. But, I thought this was a NEW CD? Yes, it is....sort of. No less than 4 of the songs on this release are from early, very early in the history of the band. The first is "She's the Woman". This song existed before Van Halen even had a record contract. Written in the mid-70's, it never made it onto an album, but widely circulated in fan-made bootlegs. For the new LP's sessions, an earlier recording was brought out of the vault and re-written (partially) and re-recorded. Listening to the original puts the listener's ear into a quasi-disco/funk space, while the "official" version is pure and undeniable Rock N Roll. With lyrics about a party-hard homeless man who has a Chevy truck for a "summer home" and an eye for the ladies, "She's the Woman" is far better served as a new track. For proof of how far the song has come since it's conception, track down the original version on the internet.

"You and Your Blues" is track 3. It starts with a guitar riff that could have been inspired directly from one of their Hagar era hits "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)". The song chugs along with guitar picking and blues influenced lines like "Ain't no red house over yonder" and "Ain't no Midnight Train to Georgia" until the chorus kicks in, then it's straight to three part harmonies and background singing ala the best parts of "Panama" from their last CD together. The guitar solo is something of an anomaly, at least when you take in consideration the "standard" fret-work of Eddie Van Halen. Gone are the piano style, fast and furious arpeggios that are the trademark of "The Van Halen" sound, replaced with long, sliding psychedelic notes reminiscent of Jimi Hendryx. A perfect artistic nod to "the blues"

"China Town" start off with "the typical" Eddie Van Halen fret work. I could say that the intro has 1,000 notes in it and without seeing the sheet music to prove me wrong, most people would probably agree. Fast and furious, "China Town" could be the immigrant brother to "Hot For Teacher", at least the drum and bass parts. To this day, most drummers listen to the double-footed kick drumming on "Hot For Teacher" and wonder how the heck Alex did it....its good to hear that he still has it.

"Blood and Fire" is an auto-biographical story of Van Halen's return. "We came through Blood and Fire" and "Told ya I was coming back. Say ya missed me. Say it like you mean it." will attest to that. Eddie even throws in some "Jump"-like fancy finger work for the guitar solo. THIS is the Van Halen we all missed. Ironically, the song was an outtake from their "1984" CD (The last with Roth until now) although in an instrumental form. With the added lyrics, it really is a "Quantum Leap" moment.

"Bullethead" is the heaviest track on the CD. From the stuttering "B-B-B-B-Bullethead" chorus to the slightly out of tune guitar solo and the stop dead ending, this is speed-metal-rock guitar, minor chord bliss.

"As Is" starts with another nod to the grunge rock movement. The opening guitar riff could just have easily come from a Korn CD, but the slow, down-low guitar gives way to more blazing guitar and fast paced beat. The lyrics play on Roth's solo career after Van Halen, " Yesterday I was a bum and broke, today I am a star and broke. In this town that's called progress." and "I've been rich and I've been poor, rich is better, totally better". The band joins in chanting "SO!" and the song hammers on until the grunge rock refrain returns, only to be banished by some "down-home bluesy" guitar picking'....complete with Diamond Dave pulling you in for a short talk. The fast pace returns and the song finally fades out with reverberating guitar chords that sound like whale-song. An eerie ending to a complicated track.

"Honeybabysweetiedoll" is more of an experimental guitar exercise at the start than a song. There is string bending a-plenty with no melody in sight, random thumbing though a short wave radio set and plenty of other weird sounds. It sounds more like an industrial avaunt-guard recording that Yoko Ono would approve of. Then the song starts. Finally. While this may be a new track, it sounds like an outcast from the much-maligned "Van Halen III" CD with one-time front man Gary Cherone. Most fans will hit the skip button on this one.

"The Trouble With Never" is the tightest track on the new CD, at least in terms of the interplay between the guitar, bass and drums. The intro is absolutely fantastic and thankfully, it gets repeated several times during the next 4 minutes. More "Dirty Uncle" Dave talk in the middle. He sounds like he's smoking a whole pack of cigarettes during the recording of this passage. The groove takes on a Ted Nugent-esque "Stranglehold" vibe while Dave speaks. The chorus returns to "ooohs" and "aaaaahs" singing in the background why Dave asks "When was the last time you did something for the first time?" and then the track ends just as it begins. Not your typical rock song and light years ahead of Van Halen's "glory day" output which amounted to party tracks about girls, cars, booze and more girls.

"Outta Space" is another orphaned track from their Demo days once titled "Let's Get Rockin". For a good laugh, track down the original version. Where the former is full of rock cliche', the latter is an "Interstellar Facial Full" of alien humor. It's not the band's first foray into alien mythology, their 1986 Van Hagar track "Love Walks In" was a thinly veiled tale of alien abduction wrapped in synthesizer chords love song. Another gem of a track that gets a second-life through years of Advanced Rock 101 songwriting. Dave almost gets his 1976 voice back as he wails the lyrics. Almost, but at his age, it's enough to please most die-hard "Diamond Dave" fans.

"Stay Frosty" only exists to remind us all that Dave used to get an odd "old timey" tune once in awhile. Think "Ice Cream Man" from the first Van Halen album. Of course (we all saw, or rather heard it coming) the opening ditty gives way to an electric guitar rock track. It's an odd saying that turns into an odd song about being true to yourself, like the preacher said(?). There are a few Biblical-type references in the song, along with Cabala and Kung Fu, goats and camels. Exactly what all of this means to anyone other than Roth is a mystery. I think he likes it that way. A fun song, but otherwise forgettable. It will probably become a sequeway into "Ice Cream Man" on the upcoming tour.

If the next track "Big River" sounds familiar, even on the first listen, it should. It comes from the same demo era as "Running With The Devil" (From Van Halen, 1978) and "She's The Woman". It's a throw-back groove that puts a smile on the face and makes you want to head bang old-school style. An enjoyable track that gets buried by being the 12th track. Do yourself a favor, put "Big River" at the top of the playlist on your music device of choice, skip "Tattoo" and then work your way down the rest of the album. By the time "Tattoo" rolls back around, you'll wonder why it was even put on this album, it sounds that much out of place.

The final "new" song is, you guessed it, another out take re-recording. "Beats Workin" is another time-honored song about finding "alternative" ways of making a living, to put it mildly. It's the longest song on the album due to gobs of guitar feedback at the start and end that were designed to "prime" the crowd during concerts. The licks are prime for air guitar fodder and the theme of the song everyone can identify with, in one way or another. Spoiler alert - There IS cowbell. I sense a future SNL spoof about the making of the song. Maybe they can get Diamond Dave as the guest host and Van Halen as the musical guest. It would all make sense, because the "best" of Van Halen hasn't always been about the music, it's been about the chemistry between the band and the front man. For decades, it's been a dysfunctional relationship, one that produced (only with Sammy Hagar on vocals) a lot of hits, but not much "fun". That's what this album brings back, the fun.

For "A Different Kind of Truth", I give 5 and a half strings out of 6. The album lacks one vital thing, spontaneity. Rock N Roll is, was, and always will be a "now" art form. Tastes in music change over the years along with recording techniques, effects and sounds that a guitar can make and cultural references in lyrics. Honestly, tell me that "Stay Frosty", if sung with an acoustic guitar and washboard, couldn't be mistaken for an old-timely 1930's folk song. It's always fun to look back once in awhile and reference the past in new music, but Van Halen didn't do that here, they dug up the past, dusted it off, polished it up and presented it to the fans as "new" material. I would have been more pleased to hear these songs from a box set of "all old songs" re-recorded, than peppered into a CD of new music here and there. They sound out of place, but overall, the biggest "loser" of a song is "Tattoo". It sticks out like a sore thumb, or for that matter, like someone in Van Halen NOT named Van Halen. For that, I take away only half of a string, because frankly, the rest of the CD is so darn good.

WHERE THEY WERE:

Frankly, I was going to write up an extensive band history bio, complete with every album review and tales of lead singer changes and the like, but no. It would take a novel sized article to do that.....and, it's already been done via the internet and a tell-all book by Sammy Hagar (vocalist #2 and #4). So I'll skip all the "he said-he said-he did-he didn't" stuff and stick to the music. If I must sum up all the fuss and feud in a few words it would be "Ladies and Gentlemen......The Jerry Springer of Rock Bands, Van Halen!"

VAN HALEN (1978)

35 Minutes of (then) ground breaking hard rock and heavy metal guitar work. This album ranks in the Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" by Rolling Stone magazine. Boasting 3 hit singles "You Really Got Me", "Running With The Devil" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and other tracks that have become rock-radio and live concert staples such as "Jamie's Cryin" and "Ice Cream Man". A must-have CD for an self-respecting hard rock aficionado. 5 of 6 Strings for a rating.

VAN HALEN II (1979)

Suffering a bit from the "Sophomore Slump", this album comes in at just over a half hour and contains more "pop" oriented songs than its predecessor. "Dance The Night Away" and "Beautiful Girls" are available on their last compilation album "The Best of Both Worlds", so the casual fan could skip this album and not miss much, other than the strangely good cover of a Linda Ronstadt song, "You're No Good". 3 out of 6 strings.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST (1980)

This album features only 1 "hit" single with "And The Cradle Will Rock...", although the album track "Everybody Wants Some!!" can still be heard on radio stations to this day. This is the first Van Halen LP to contain all original songs where the previous LPs contained a few "covers" of other band's previous hits. WACF ranks at #30 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time" according to Kerrang! magazine. A must-have for the hard core and completest fans, but a pass for the masses. 3 out of 6 strings.

FAIR WARNING (1981)

No singles from this LP were "hits" at the time, although "Unchained" enjoys a near-immortal role in their live shows with Roth and lead singer #3, Gary Cherone. A dark, menacing album with lots of guitar wizardry but a lack of any sense of "fun" that the previous LPs were peppered with. If you're a fan of their toe tapping sing along songs, this album is not for you. "Unchained" can be found on the "Best of Both Worlds" compilation. 3 of 6 strings.

DIVER DOWN (1982)

Most of the songs on this album are covers with only 4 (not counting instrumentals) original tracks. The hits came with "(Oh) Pretty Woman", a Roy Orbison cover and "Dancing In The Streets", a 60's hit for Martha and the Vandellas. From start to end, the LP will take just over half an hour to work its way to the last note, but within that 31 minutes are some prime-time party tunes. The humor returns with "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) and an off-beat cover of "Happy Trails" (the old timey country cowboy song) made famous by Roy Rogers. This album features some odd choices for inspiration, including Mexican, Country and Organ musical flavors. An ambitious effort that was originally a way to cash in on their new found popularity from the (at first) single only release of "(Oh) Pretty Woman". 5 of 6 strings.

1984 (1984)

This is the LP that "made" and "broke" the band, it was the last album with the full Van Halen roster of David Lee Roth (Vocals), Eddie Van Halen (Guitar), Alex Van Halen (Drums) and Michael Anthony (Bass). It contains the hits "Jump" (#1 Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Rock Track)which sold 3 million copies as a single alone, along with "I'll Wait" and "Panama" which both went Top 15 and "Hot For Teacher" which was a minor hit, but had a video that went into heavy rotation in MTV's glory days. The LP featured more synthesizer than any previous release, but also contained some of Eddie's best guitar work. The songs are tight, loud, pounding and rank among the best that Van Halen ever produced. It has been said that Roth wanted more pop-sounding songs like "Jump", where Eddie preferred a harder edge for the band's output and this lead to their breakup after the 1984 tour. Probably an over-exaggerated simplification in hind-sight, as their next LP "5150" would feature even more keyboard driven tunes than this. Add in a successful solo career by Roth and the ingredients were there for a parting of ways, albeit temporarily permanent. These 9 songs plant the flag at the pinnacle of Van Halen's career, a height that all future success will be measured against. From the opening synth of "1984" (instrumental) to the final echo of "House of Pain", this album is sheer brilliance. Not to be missing from your collection. 6 out of 6 strings is an understatement.

5150 (1986)

The first LP with new lead singer, former Montrose ("Bad Motor Scooter") and solo performer ("I Can't Drive 55") Sammy Hagar. This was Van Halen's first #1 Album according to Billboard Charts. At the time, die hard fans scoffed and nicknamed the band "Van Hagar", but some were eventually won back by Hagar's throat shredding efforts on such songs as "Good Enough" and "Best of Both Worlds". Also appearing for the first time on any Van Halen release were proper "balladic love songs" in "Why Can't This Be Love" and "Love Walk In", both of which were heavily driven by keyboard parts and featured Sammy Hagar guitar solos. 5 tracks cracked the Top 40 including the #1 Album Rock Track "Why Can't This Be Love". This album serves as a worthy debut of Van Halen 2.0 and is a must-have for all but the die-hard "David Lee Roth IS Van Halen" fans. 5 out of 6 strings.

I NEVER SAID GOODBYE (1987) - Sammy Hagar solo LP

Notable for being a collaboration of Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen (who plays bass,sings backup,plays guitar & co-produced the album). Several of the songs from this LP would be performed by Van Halen on subsequent tours including "Give To Live" and "Eagles Fly" Arguably the best of Sammy's solo releases. 5 out of 6 stars and a must-have for Van-Hagar fans.
 

OU812 (1988)

While containing some straight forward rock tracks, it also featured some acoustic country flavor ("Finish What Ya Started"), R'N'B ("A Apolitical Blues") and a lone ballad titled "When It's Love". This was the second #1 album on the Billboard Charts and 6 of the tracks also charted, with "Black and Blue" and "When It's Love" peaking at #1 on the Mainstream Rock Charts. Interestingly, the song "Finish What Ya Started" has never been played live by any incarnation of Van Halen as reportedly, the band was unhappy with the song. It would later be revived by "The Other Half" which consist of Hagar and Michael Anthony (as in "The Other Half" of Van Halen) and played live. Bootlegs exist of an almost entirely synthesizer version "remix" of the song that sounds very unlike Van Halen and was possibly commissioned for a single release but never issued. The issued single was the LP version. The album is a bit uneven though and the songs don't flow into each other as good as on 5150 due to different styles from track to track. Where 5150's songs could seg from one to another in almost any order, OU812 suffers a bit from poor track placement. The speed-demon pace of "Mine All Mine" comes to a crashing halt for the ballad "When It's Love" only to be throw forward into another fast track in "A.F.U." A minor flaw. A worthy followup to Van Halen 2.0's debut on 5150 an a very strong 4.5 out of 6 strings.

FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (1991)

The hardest rocking Van Halen LP with Hagar up to that point, it was clearly an attempted return to their roots. The synthesizer is almost entirely absent from this record, replaced in spots by Eddie on piano, most noticeably on the track "Right Now". Released at the beginning of the “grunge rock” movement, this album undoubtedly suffered by comparison. Where groups like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden where hailed as “the next big thing”, bands like Van Halen, Warrant and Def Leppard (who all released LPs around this time) were seen as “corporate rock” and something to be tossed aside and left for dead in the previous decade. That being said, this album managed to place 6 songs in the Billboard Charts, including 3 #1 tracks, “Poundcake” , “Runaround” and “Top of the World” on the Album Rock Tracks chart and “Right Now” placed at #2. This LP also marked the return of former producer Ted Templeman who oversaw the sessions of all David Lee Roth-era albums. The only real disappointment of the LP is the similarity between tracks. Where OU812 was nearly schizophrenic from track to track, these songs sound so similar that it takes several listens to pick out what song you’re listening to. There are plenty of “Rock Gawd” guitar licks to be found, but they invariably end up buried in effects and tricks that Eddie has layered on his performance. For a rating, their 1991 effort strums along on 4 strings.

LIVE: RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW (1993)

The first, and to date, only LIVE Van Halen release on CD. Whether it is an entirely “live” recording has recently come into question. For his 2011 autobiography, Sammy Hagar states that he was forced into the studio to re-record portions of his vocals from the set, and these recordings comprise the released version and not the original vocals. The double CDs contain 10 of the 11 tracks from their last LP “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”, 4 tracks from their Roth-era recordings and 2 Hagar solo tracks. Also included is a cover of the classic Who track “ Won’t Get Fooled Again” which put another #1 Mainstream Rock Track entry on the Van Halens’ resume’. Despite the CD’s allegedly tarnished audio pedigree, it is 2 hours of (nearly?) live wire rock and roll Van Halen style. A 3.5 out of 6 strings. More interpretations of Roth-era songs would have helped it out with an additional half star or two….

BALANCE (1993)

Balance begins with a cacophony of noise courtesy of chanting monks and metal wind chimes and ends with a dark ascending orchestral symphony. Challenging and complicated sounds coming from a hard rock band, but the material in between does strike a balance of eclectic and expected hard rock. Other "confusing" choices for material on the album is the instrumental "Strung Out" which amounts to Eddie destroying a piano by throwing objects against its strings. Of the three instrumentals on the CD, "Baluchitherium" is the most accessible, being a straight forward rock track. It is their strongest album since 5150 seven years earlier. "Amsterdam" was a Top 10 hit on the Mainstream Rock Charts as was "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)" which hit #1, and "Can't Stop Lovin' You" missed the top by one spot. "The Seventh Seal" and "Not Enough" (another ballad) both went Top 40. Within 2 weeks of the album's release, it too hit the #1 position, Van Halen's 4th chart topping album, all of them with Sammy Hagar. "Van Hagar" (all but) ended with this release, as it was the last full length LP of all new material with Hagar. It was a fitting, hard-rocking, complicated farewell. Sure, it didn't have the amount of hits as previous efforts, but it was more even overall and showed a definite growth as Van Halen-the band, exploring new and innovative sound textures all the while retaining their hard trademark sound. I give it 5.5 out of 6 stars.

HUMANS BEING (1996) (Single from "Twister" Motion Picture) & RESPECT THE WIND

The final recording of "Van Hagar", "Human's Being" was featured in the Motion Picture "Twister" and hit #1 on the Mainstream Rock Chart in the summer of 1996. While writing the song for the soundtrack, Eddie became unhappy with Hagar's lyrics and insisted on rewriting them himself. A major internal rift developed from years of tension and Van Halen and Sammy Hagar parted ways. The other "Van Halen" contribution to the soundtrack was the instrumental "Respect the Wind" which featured Alex and Eddie alone.

GREATEST HITS VOL. 1 (1996)

Lead Vocalist # 3: Following the departure of Sammy Hagar, Van Halen briefly reunited with former vocalist David Lee Roth to record 2 new songs for their first compilation LP of "greatest hits". "Me Wise Magic" was released as the lead single and quickly shot to #1 on the Mainstream Rock Charts. It was their third #1 with David Lee Roth, their 12th overall. The other new song "Can't Get This Stuff No More" was also released as a single and nearly reached the Top 10, peaking at #12. The album also went #1 in the US and Canada. These 2 songs would be the final recordings of the "classic" Van Halen lineup of Roth, Anthony and the Van Halen brothers. The collection has since been supplanted by their next 2-CD "Greatest Hits" compilation, "The Best of Both Worlds", however, this CD is the only place you can find the 2 new Roth tracks as well as the Twister song "Humans Being", aside from the soundtrack itself. 3 strings out of 6. One for each track that you can't get anywhere else.

VAN HALEN III (1998)

Lead Vocalist #4: Calling this album Van Halen 3 was surely a nod to their 3rd lead singer Gary Cherone, formerly of Extreme. It is the only album that features him on lead vocals and is the last album to feature original bassist Michael Anthony, albeit on only 3 tracks. Eddie Van Halen plays bass on the rest of the LP. The single "Without You" went to #1 on the Mainstream Rock charts. Two other singles "Fire in the Hole" and "One I Want" were also Top 10 and Top 30 tracks respectively. This third incarnation of Van Halen was doomed almost from the start. The album failed to hit #1, a feat they had accomplished with their last 5 studio releases. Perhaps it was a backlash from their failed reunion with Roth a few years earlier, perhaps it was due to the low profile career of Gary Cherone, either way, sales of this LP were low and it never achieved higher than "gold" status, selling about half a million copies. A tour followed in support with unremarkable ticket sales. A follow-up LP was in the works when the band, Cherone and their record label mutually pulled the plug. In retrospect, it's not a bad album, but it's not good either. It's mostly average...and frankly, when you're one of the biggest rock bands in history and you make such a dramatic change by sacking several lead singers in a short period of time, you had better release something stellar to back it all up. They didn't. This album is for the most hard-core-must-have-everything collector, the average fan may find a few interesting or OK tracks, but nothing from this LP will ever be labeled as a "great" Van Halen song. I give this "Van-Hey, Who is HE?" record 1 single string out of 6.

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS (2004)

Lead Vocalist #5: The second "greatest hits" package from Van Halen, and once again, they reunite with a former lead singer to add on some new tracks. Nope, not that guy, the other former lead singer, Sammy Hagar. The double CD does a good job mixing the Roth-era songs (16 of them) with the Van Hagar tracks (17) but the scales tip in the favor of Hagar when you take into account the 3 new Hagar tracks. NO tracks from Van Halen III appear on this package as its title points to not only one of their songs, but "the best of" both of their featured lead singers. While the track listing is indeed "the best" of the group, it could have also included the 2 Roth recordings from Volume 1 and the Twister soundtrack single "Humans Being" and been a FAR better set than with those aforementioned 3 new Sammy Hagar tracks. They are absolutely useless and laughable. Their mere presence on this set is worth the deduction of at least 1 string from the rating. They almost completely destroy the other two and a half hours of fantastic music. The first abomination heard during the playing of the CDs is "Up For Breakfast". I'll let some random internet fans describe this one....."sounds like a beer commercial....Sounds like a 7th grader wrote it.....NOT Van Hagar's finest moment." Those were only a few of the overly negative remarks on the YouTube video for the song.....explicative deleted of course, and there were quite a few. The next new track "Learning To See" is 100 times better than "Up For Breakfast", but stacked against the "best of" Van Halen on the rest of the CD, it's just listenable. A dark toned song with plenty of Van Hagar wailing vocals, but strangely enough, it may have sounded better with Gary Cherone singing on it. The rest of Van Halen III sounded like this track, nothing previously with Sammy did. It sounds out of place. The final new song "It's About Time" (#6 Mainstream Rock Chart in 2004) almost recaptures the magic of Van Hagar. Almost. The songs chugs along with a funky guitar groove, lots of finger-board tapping by Eddie and a sing-along background chorus....it could be an out-take from the OU812 sessions in style....but there is just something missing. The absence of Michael Anthony on background vocals is notable and noticeable. The way Sammy would play off of Anthony's ultra-high vocals created a sound unlike any other in hard rock. There is none of that here and the song suffers for it. "The Best of Both Worlds" is still a "must have" for Van Halen fans that may have missed some of their album output during the 90's while they were busy listening to grunge records, so for them, it's a solid 5 strings out of 6. Just do yourself a favor and skip over the "new" songs. You're not missing a thing.

So.....it's been a long, complicated and fan-frustrating trip. For those who have stuck with the band in these last 35 years, we've been rewarded with the following (up to the release of "A Different Kind Of Truth" in 2011):

80 MILLION albums sold worldwide, 56 MILLION in the US alone.

Most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts of any artist. (at least 13)

PLATINUM ALBUMS: 13 ( Every LP except "Van Halen III", which only went Gold)

#1 ALBUMS: 5 ( ALL Sammy Hagar LPs, except Vol.1 Greatest Hits)

Top 40 Hits: 23 (all charts included)

Top 10 Hits: 17(all charts included)

#1 Pop Singles: 2

Whatever Van Halen has in store for its legions of fans, one thing is for sure. It will not be predictable. I for one have enjoyed the ride, speed bumps and all.

Keep Rockin'

Jeffery Smith