“Black & Blue” by Van Halen

"Black & Blue" was the first single off OU812, Van Halen's 1988 album for Warner Bros., and it comes out swaggering. All four of them share the writing credit, and the band produced it with Donn Landee, who also recorded it, with Ken Deane assisting.

Sammy Hagar sings lead and straps on a guitar too, doubling up with Eddie Van Halen, who also works the keyboards; Michael Anthony holds down the bass and joins Eddie on backing vocals, and Alex Van Halen pounds the drums and percussion. It went to the top of Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart and reached 34 on the Hot 100, and Cash Box figured it was hot enough to scorch the grooves, singling out both Hagar's singing and Eddie's playing.

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