Album · Van Halen
5150 by Van Halen
5150 is an album by Van Halen, released in 1986. 5 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 182 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Why Can't This Be Love”, on 80 lists with a best position of #28.
5150, Van Halen's seventh album, came out on Warner Bros. on March 24, 1986, and it answered the question everybody was asking after David Lee Roth walked: yes, there was life after Roth. Former Montrose singer Sammy Hagar stepped in, and this was the first of his four albums with the band. The title came from Eddie Van Halen's home studio, itself named after a California law-enforcement code for someone mentally disturbed.
Mick Jones produced, and the record trades some of the old circus-barker mischief for big, open-hearted anthems. Hagar belts rather than winks, Eddie's guitar and keyboards shine, and Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony keep the engine room roaring. "Why Can't This Be Love" and "Dreams" soar, "Love Walks In" goes starry-eyed, and "Summer Nights" and the title track let the band cut loose. It became their first album to hit number one on the Billboard 200, a spot 1984 had missed thanks to Thriller.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from 5150 on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Why Can't This Be Love | 80 | #28 | – | 1990–2026 | |
| 2 | Dreams | 63 | #45 | – | 1990–2026 | |
| 3 | Love Walks In | 19 | #163 | – | 1990–2025 | |
| 4 | Summer Nights | 19 | #44 | – | 1990–2024 | |
| 5 | 5150 | 1 | #676 | – | 1990 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.