The 50 best Van Halen songs - the ultimate American party soundtrack - Louder

[edjr 6,578]

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-50-best-van-halen-songs

 

Here are top 5.

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5. Runnin' With The Devil
On the two occasions that Van Halen recorded this song as a demo – first with Gene Simmons producing in 1976 and again in 1977 with Ted Templeman and Mo Ostin as producer – it came directly after House Of Pain. The intro’s unique dissonant, descending sound effect, created using a collection of car horns and tape manipulation, was actually the ending of House Of Pain, and the car horns appeared briefly throughout that song. 

While the effect was somewhat distracting between songs, Templeman realised it would make a brilliant attention-getting intro, so he decided to sequence Runnin’ With The Devil as the first song on Van Halen’s debut album. With its basic chord progression and melodic guitar ‘solos’, Runnin’ With The Devil is one of the simplest songs Van Halen ever recorded, but like Smoke On The Water and Iron Man, a big part of its power comes from that simplicity. Yet, to paraphrase Roth’s lyrics, the simple things weren’t so simple. 

Little embellishments – like the harmonised vocals on the chorus, the rhythm section’s deep groove that swings as much as it stomps, and even the way Eddie rakes the strings between the bridge and stop tailpiece on his Ibanez Destroyer on the intro – make Van Halen’s recording nearly inimitable. Perhaps the most striking feature of this song is Van Halen’s raw, violent and hungry attitude. It’s the kind of thing that only exists during that magical make-or-break moment when a band announces its presence to the world at large.

4. Beautiful Girls
Back in the 70s and 80s, most aspiring bands enjoyed the rite of passage of playing at strip clubs and wet T-shirt contests. This privilege has now passed on to the club DJ, but while it lasted it was one of the best gigs an up-and-coming musician could hope to get (especially if you managed to get lucky after the show). 

“It was one of the reasons why we played,” Alex explained. “It’s just life. It’s seeing everything, enjoying it, and taking it a little bit further than it should. You had to do the wet T-shirt contest during the fourth set. You had to get the girls lubed up, and then they would get looser and start to hike their skirts up.” 

While Van Halen had plenty of songs that could fill the bill, they went one better by writing their own ode to ogling called Bring On The Girls with a bump-and-grind riff, raunchy rhythm and lascivious lyrics guaranteed to get things going. Due to record label pressure, the band toned down the lyrics slightly from the 1977 demo version and renamed the song Beautiful Girls when they recorded it for Van Halen II. 

3. Unchained
Unchained is not just a welcome major-key party anthem in the middle of the moody Fair Warning – it’s the Van Halen song that sold a million guitar fl anger effects pedals. By carefully setting the fl anger speed to sweep up in pitch on one half of the main riff and down on the next, Eddie created a risingand-falling rollercoaster vibe that gave the fans a chance to throw their hands in the air and go along for the wild ride. A short, surprisingly restrained solo begins with some fl ash but quickly swings straight into melodic territory, bringing the break to a crisp crescendo. 

The song makes a perfect showcase for Roth’s swagger, Michael Anthony’s harmonies, Alex’s percussive thunder, and, per Eddie’s choice on this album, plenty of guitar overdubs. And hearing Eddie play several guitar parts at once is just more of a good thing. Whether the ad-libbed conversation between Dave and the apparently sharp-dressed producer Ted Templeman was really a spontaneous creation or a rehearsed bit is still up for discussion, but it hardly matters – it’s proof that the band’s playful personality was still in evidence, despite a widening rift between producer and artist. 

“I felt at the time that [Templeman] didn’t understand me anymore,” Eddie said. “I’d get so frustrated at not being able to do what I wanted. I ended up doing 90 percent of the guitar tracking at four o’clock in the morning with our engineer, Donn Landee.” They say adversity inspires greatness, and with Unchained, the ire clearly fuelled the fire.

2. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
Much as Slash has gone on record saying that his legendary guitar intro to Sweet Child O’ Mine was written as a joke, Eddie Van Halen downplayed Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love as “just a stupid thing. Just two chords”. But to paraphrase Spinal Tap, there’s a fine line between stupid and clever. And this classic track from Van Halen’s 1978 debut (as well as Slash’s work on Sweet Child, for that matter) falls firmly into the latter category. 

Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love was one of the last songs written for Van Halen, and Eddie originally conceived the straightforward, two-chord basher as a knock on the then-burgeoning punk movement. But apparently “punk rock” as played by Eddie Van Halen includes an opening riff built on heavily palm-muted, arpeggiated chords, a third-verse breakdown fi lled with chiming harmonics, and a hooky, almost vocal-like guitar solo that, on the album version, Eddie doubled with an electric sitar. Of playing the sitar, he recalled, “It sounded like a buzzy-fretted guitar. The thing was real bizarre.” 

In the end, perhaps the joke was on Ed, as Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love has gone on to become one of Van Halen’s most iconic tunes. In addition to being a classic-rock radio staple, it was played on almost every tour the band did with Roth. And in perhaps an even greater testament to its popularity, it was one of the few DLR-era songs that remained in live sets during the Sammy Hagar years.

1. Hot For Teacher
A quintessential classic Van Halen song must have several crucial elements: thundering drums, rumbling bass that is felt more than heard, an outrageously cocky vocal performance, a killer guitar riff, and an acrobatic guitar solo with more thrills and spills than Evel Knievel jumping 25 explosive-filled cars with a dirt bike and a fifth of Jack Daniel’s. 

Hot For Teacher delivers all of these elements and then some, making it the definitive Van Halen song. The song begins with a bang, with Alex Van Halen pummelling a rapid-fire intro that sounds more like a dragster warming up for a race than a drum kit. Eddie kicks the dynamics up a notch, furiously tapping his Flying V’s fretboard before blasting off into power-chord overdrive. The song’s real appeal, however, lies in its infectious nitro-fuelled boogie-blues shuffle, which sounds like ZZ Top juiced on meth and Viagra. 

“That song was beyond any boogie I ever heard,” Eddie recalled, “it was pretty powerful.” DLR walks a tightrope between macho metal posturing and tongue-in-cheek humour, making a possibly obscene scenario seem absurd. Eddie’s solo is pure excitement, distinguished by dazzling ascending runs and a loose, flowing feel that makes even his most challenging passages sound effortless and unforced. The boisterous climax, lifted from the band’s 1977 demo of Voodoo Queen, is an aural orgasm that probably left most first-time listeners shouting “Oh my god!” in weak-kneed unison with Roth.

 

 

Hot for teacher was certainly their best video

[HellToupee 1,583]

#2 is #1

[bostonlager 2,664]

Best music era of all time. Dokken is my favorite. 

[Thornton Melon 603]

9 minutes ago, HellToupee said:

#2 is #1

Best intro ever

[lod001 1,344]

43 minutes ago, HellToupee said:

#2 is #1

Yep. 

[weepaws 3,152]

Hard to pick their top song, they sounded the same.  

[edjr 6,578]

56 minutes ago, bostonlager said:

Best music era of all time. Dokken is my favorite. 

  is this true? 

[Strike 5,185]

23 minutes ago, weepaws said:

Hard to pick their top song, they sounded the same.  

Do you celebrate their entire catalog?

[League Champion 1,896]

Hot for teacher was corny but they had some amazing songs

Ice Cream Man

[Dizkneelande 1,085]

Hard to argue. I’d probably go drop dead legs  or Panama in the top spots 

[patweisers44 815]

My alltime favorite band. I am sure every list would be different.

I would add Romeo Delight and Unchained to the list of top intros.

Drop Dead Legs and I'll Wait are two of the biggest bombs in their catalogue. Top Jimmy is the best thing on 1984.

[bostonlager 2,664]

2 hours ago, edjr said:

  is this true? 

Oh yeah. I got to see them a few years ago in a small outdoor concert venue in my area. 
 

 

[Mike Honcho 5,093]

9 minutes ago, patweisers44 said:

My alltime favorite band. I am sure every list would be different.

I would add Romeo Delight and Unchained to the list of top intros.

Drop Dead Legs and I'll Wait are two of the biggest bombs in their catalogue. Top Jimmy is the best thing on 1984.

Mine too. 

On the first day of the year that I can take out my convertible and put the top down, this is this the first song played. 

 

[edjr 6,578]

43 minutes ago, bostonlager said:

Oh yeah. I got to see them a few years ago in a small outdoor concert venue in my area. 
 

 

I have seen them like 4 times, maybe 5. Dokken is my favorite hairband

[edjr 6,578]

 

[bostonlager 2,664]

5 minutes ago, edjr said:

I have seen them like 4 times, maybe 5. Dokken is my favorite hairband

A big snort of Columbian bam bam and Dokken playing full blast is my person Old Milwaukee commercial. It doesn’t get much better than this boys. 

[Fnord 2,051]

3 hours ago, weepaws said:

Hard to pick their top song, they sounded the same.  

I feel the same about Bible verses.

[Cloaca du jour 2,147]

Crackhead bob.....dunnin wib da debil

[kutulu 1,659]

Eruption and Cradle aren't in the top 5? Crap list.