Album · Van Halen
OU812 by Van Halen
OU812 is an album by Van Halen, released in 1988. 5 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 114 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “When It's Love”, on 50 lists with a best position of #65.
OU812, Van Halen's eighth album, landed on Warner Bros. on May 24, 1988, just a month after the band wrapped up sessions they'd started in September 1987. Donn Landee is credited as producer, and it's their second record with Sammy Hagar out front, alongside Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony. The title is a schoolyard pun, read aloud as "Oh You Ate One Too".
The sound is big, glossy hard rock with a bar-band grin: Eddie's guitar squeals and struts, Hagar hollers, and the rhythm section swings like it's Saturday night. "When It's Love" is the power ballad, a keyboard-draped anthem that went to number 5 on the Hot 100, while "Finish What Ya Started" is a loose, finger-snapping shuffle and "Cabo Wabo" rolls in with a lazy, sun-baked swagger. Like 5150 before it, it topped the Billboard 200, and it went on to sell more than 4 million copies.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from OU812 on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | When It's Love | 50 | #65 | – | 1990–2026 | |
| 2 | Finish What Ya Started | 53 | #151 | – | 1990–2025 | |
| 3 | Black & Blue | 7 | #164 | – | 1990–2024 | |
| 4 | Cabo Wabo | 2 | #528 | – | 1990–2016 | |
| 5 | AFU/Naturally Wired | 1 | #489 | – | 1990 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.