Van Halen

Van Halen came out of Pasadena in 1972, built around the brothers Eddie Van Halen on guitar and Alex Van Halen on drums, with Mark Stone on bass until Michael Anthony took over in 1974. Out front stood David Lee Roth, and behind him Eddie, the primary songwriter, who also sang backing vocals and played keyboards. The band made its name on high-energy live shows and on Eddie's sheer virtuosity, the kind of guitar playing that left jaws on the floor.

The self-titled debut arrived on Warner Bros. in February 1978 and eventually went diamond in America. It hit like a sonic boom: "Eruption/You Really Got Me" is pure fireworks, "Runnin' with the Devil" struts on a fat, booming groove, and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" swaggers on a sinister riff. Van Halen II followed in 1979, the year of the sunny "Dance the Night Away", then Women and Children First in 1980, Fair Warning in 1981, the year of "Unchained", and Diver Down in 1982. Hard rock had drifted to the sidelines, and Van Halen dragged it back to center stage.

The album 1984 arrived in January of that year and was a juggernaut: "Jump" became their only number one on the Billboard Hot 100, "Panama" roared, and "Hot for Teacher" came galloping in. Then Roth left to go solo in 1985, and former Montrose singer Sammy Hagar stepped in. With Hagar the band put four albums at number one in America, starting with 5150 in 1986 and running through OU812 and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge to Balance, which closed the run in 1995.

Hagar left in 1996, Gary Cherone of Extreme lasted for one album, Van Halen III, and the band went on hiatus until Hagar returned for a tour in 2004. Roth came back in 2006, with Eddie's son Wolfgang Van Halen replacing Anthony on bass, and A Different Kind of Truth in 2012 was their final studio album. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 2007. Eddie died of cancer in 2020, and a month later Wolfgang confirmed that Van Halen was over.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.