Van Halen (/væn ˈheɪlɛn/ van HAY-len) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene,[2] Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances[3] and for the virtuosity of its guitarist, Eddie Van Halen.[4][5] The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
From 1974 to 1985, Van Halen consisted of Eddie Van Halen, Eddie's brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, lead vocalist David Lee Roth, and bassist and vocalist Michael Anthony.[6] Upon its release in 1978, the band's self-titled debut album reached No. 19 on the Billboard 200 and would sell over 10 million copies in the United States, achieving a Diamond certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). By 1982, the band released four more albums: Van Halen II (1979), Women and Children First (1980), Fair Warning (1981), and Diver Down (1982), all of which have since been certified multi-platinum. By the early 1980s, Van Halen was among the most commercially successful rock acts.[7] The album 1984, released in the eponymous year, was a commercial success with U.S. sales of 10 million copies and four successful singles. Its lead single, "Jump", was the band's only number one single on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1985, Roth left the band to embark on a solo career and was replaced by former Montrose lead vocalist Sammy Hagar. With Hagar, the group released four U.S. number-one, multi-platinum albums over the course of 11 years: 5150 in 1986, OU812 in 1988, in 1991, and Balance in 1995. Hagar left the band in 1996 shortly before the release of the band's first greatest hits collection, Best Of – Volume I. Former Extreme frontman Gary Cherone replaced Hagar and recorded the commercially unsuccessful album Van Halen III with the band in 1998, before parting ways in 1999. Van Halen then went on hiatus until reuniting with Hagar in 2003 for a worldwide tour in 2004 and the double-disc greatest hits collection, The Best of Both Worlds. Hagar again left Van Halen in 2005. Roth returned in 2006, but Anthony was replaced on bass guitar by Eddie's son, Wolfgang Van Halen. In 2012, the band released their final studio album, A Different Kind of Truth, which was commercially and critically successful. It was also Van Halen's first album with Roth in 28 years and the only one to feature Wolfgang.
As of March 2019, Van Halen is 20th on the RIAA's list of best-selling artists in the United States; the band has sold 56 million albums in the U.S.[8][9] and more than 80 million worldwide, making them one of the best-selling groups of all time.[10][11][12] As of 2007, Van Halen is one of only five rock bands with two studio albums to sell more than 10 million copies in the United States[13] and is tied for the most multi-platinum albums by an American band. Additionally, Van Halen has charted 13 number-one hits on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. VH1 ranked the band seventh on its list of the "100 Greatest Hard Rock Artists".[14] Eddie was diagnosed with cancer in 2001, and died of the disease on October 6, 2020.[15][16][17] A month after his father's death, Wolfgang confirmed that Van Halen had disbanded.[1]
The Van Halen brothers were born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Alex Van Halen in 1953 and Eddie Van Halen in 1955,[18] sons to Dutch musician Jan Van Halen and Indonesian-born Indo Eugenia Van Beers. The family moved to Pasadena, California, in 1962. Young Edward began learning classical piano by ear, and became so proficient he won an annual piano recital contest 2 or 3 years in a row, despite never mastering the art of sight-reading sheet music. The brothers began playing music together in the 1960s, Eddie on drums and Alex on guitar. However, while Ed was delivering newspapers to payoff his drum set, Alex would secretly develop a passion and proficiency at them. Eventually out of frustration and brotherly competition, Ed told Alex, "OK, you play drums and I'll play your guitar."[19]
The Van Halen brothers formed their very first band, the Broken Combs, in 1964. As they gained popularity playing backyard parties and local high school functions, they changed their name first to the Trojan Rubber Co, then in 1972 to Genesis, later still to Mammoth when they discovered Genesis was already in use by a major-label British band. At this time the band included Eddie on both vocals and lead guitar and friend Mark Stone on bass. They rented a sound-system from Indiana-born, Pasadena transplant David Lee Roth for $10 per night. The loquacious, worldly, energetic son of a local ophthalmologist, Roth fronted a local R&B influenced rock band the Red Ball Jets. Roth's uncle Manny owned NYC's Bleecker street Cafe Wha? until 1968. Partly to save money, they now invited Roth to join as their lead vocalist despite previous unconvincing audition(s).[20] Ultimately Roth's charismatic "Jim Dandy" approach would be both an artistic foil to Eddie's circumspect, guitar prodigy talents as well as allowing Eddie to focus his energies on song composition.
Van Halen performing at La Cañada High School in 1975.In 1973, Mammoth officially changed its name to Van Halen.[6] According to Roth,[21] this was his brainchild. He felt it was a name that held long-term identity, artistic and marketing advantages, like Santana. They continued to play Pasadena, San Bernardino, and Venice at clubs, festivals, backyard parties and city parks like Hamilton, drawing up to 2000 people. Traffic jams and noise complaints to the local police often ensued, as far away as San Pedro.[22] Van Halen subsequently played clubs in Los Angeles and West Hollywood to growing audiences, increasing their popularity entirely through self-promotion, passing out flyers at local high schools. This tenacious self-promotion soon built them an auspicious, loyal, area following.[20]
Flyer handed out at La Cañada High School show. Ed playing an Ibanez Destroyer.By 1974, Roth had been in the band for about a year, and they decided to replace the ambivalent Stone, who was unsure about a career in music. Michael Anthony Sobolewski, a Pasadena college music-classmate of Eddie's, joined the group after an all-night jam session. He had sung and played bass in a number of less successful Arcadia backyard-party bands, including Snake. Although he was hesitant, his own Snake-bandmate encouraged him to seize this opportunity.[20] Also in 1974, the band had a major break when it was hired to play regularly at the Sunset Strip club Gazzarri's. The Doors had also "broken" there in the late 1960s. Owner Bill Gazzarri previously claimed VH was too loud. However, their new managers, Mark Algorri and Mario Miranda, took over the club's hiring and booked them through 1976.[citation needed] By the Spring of 1975, they were also the regular Tuesday night band at Myron's Ballroom.[23] They had succeeded in becoming a staple of the Los Angeles music scene during
Doug Messenger, Van Morrison's band leader guitarist, knowing that Ted Templeman was looking for a "guitar hero" act, had seen Van Halen at the Starwood in Hollywood and placed a number of calls to Warner Bros. Records for Ted to check them out. "I don't know if it was 4 calls or 10, but I knew this was exactly the act Ted wanted. So on a horrendously rainy night in mid-1977", Warner Bros. executive Mo Ostin and producer Ted Templeman saw Van Halen perform at the Starwood in Hollywood.[27] According to a December 1977 story in the Los Angeles Times, it was Van Halen's first booking at the Starwood and the first time they hired their own roadies. "We wanted to come on with a little class and we couldn't be seen setting up our own stuff in Hollywood," explained Roth.[28] Although the audience was negligible — Messenger claims only a barmaid and himself were there until Ostin and Templeman arrived — the Warner Bros. reps were so impressed that they wrote a letter of intent on a napkin, and within a week met at a local diner with the band, their future manager Marshall Berle (nephew of comedian Milton Berle) and Warner touring manager Noel Monk, who had just guided the Sex Pistols across the United States. Warner offered the band a rather basic two album recording contract, one that heavily favored Warner, paying the four young men only $0.70 per unit (album) sold, a deal that would leave the band over $1 million in debt at the conclusion of their first supporting tour as the opening act for Journey and Montrose.[29] The group recorded their debut album at Sunset Sound Recorders studio from mid-September to early October 1977, recording guitar parts for one week and then vocals for two additional. All of the tracks were laid down with little over-dubbing or multi-tracking. Minor mistakes were purposely left on the record and a very rudimentary instrument set-up was used to give the record a live feel. During this time, they continued to play various venues in Southern California, including some notable concerts at the Pasadena Convention Center produced by their promoter and impresario, Steve Tortomasi, himself a fixture in the local rock and roll scene.
Upon its release, Van Halen reached No. 19 on the Billboard pop music charts, one of rock's most commercially successful debuts.[30] It was highly regarded as both a heavy metal and hard rock album.[31] The album included songs now regarded as Van Halen classics, like "Runnin' with the Devil" and the guitar solo "Eruption", which showcased Eddie's use of a technique known as "finger-tapping", leading into what became the band's first single, a cover of "You Really Got Me". The band toured for 9 months more, opening for Black Sabbath and establishing a reputation for their performances.[32] The band's chemistry was based on Eddie Van Halen's guitar technique and David Lee Roth's charisma. The band returned to the studio for 2 weeks, in late 1978, to record Van Halen II, a 1979 LP similar in style to their debut. This record yielded the band's first hit single, "Dance the Night Away", which peaked at 15 on BB Hot 100.
Over the next four years, the band toured non stop, never taking more than 2 weeks to record an album. Their album Women and Children First was released in 1980, and further cemented Van Halen's platinum-selling status to Warner Bros. It yielded two hit singles, "And the Cradle Will Rock..." and "Everybody Wants Some!!". For the first time, an amplified Wurlitzer electric piano was used to complement Ed's guitar.
In 1981, during the recording of Fair Warning, Eddie's desire for darker, more complex songs in minor keys was at odds with Roth's pop tastes and style. Nonetheless, Roth and veteran Warner Bros. rock producer Ted Templeman acquiesced to Eddie's wishes on this album. Doug Messenger recalled how Ed and engineer Don Landee rerecorded the "Unchained" solo hours after Ted "stormed out of" the studio. This darker album only reached platinum status after $250,000 of payola pushed it up nationwide from 400k copies.[32]
Planning to release a cover single, then take a hiatus, Roth and Ed agreed upon a remake of the 1960s Roy Orbison song "Oh, Pretty Woman", which peaked at 12 on BB Top 100. "Oh, Pretty Woman"'s comical video helped its immediate success, but was also banned by MTV. Due to much pressure from Warner Bros., the hiatus was canceled and the Diver Down LP was squeezed out, again, within 2 weeks time.[32] Roth's preference for pop covers prevailed this time and with Ed's synthesizer and guitar riffs Diver Down charted much better. The band then earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest-paid single appearance of a band: $1.5 million for a 90-minute set at Steve Wozniak's 1983 US Festival,[33] a show that both Noel Monk and Doug Messenger considered artistically a disaster, Roth being imbibed on alcohol to the point of forgetting lyrics.[32] Despite this return to form, Roth and Eddie's differences continued, and this caused friction with other band members. Billy Sheehan, after his band Talas completed a tour with Van Halen, claims he was approached by Eddie to replace Michael Anthony; the reasons for this were never completely clear to Sheehan, as nothing came of it.[34] During this time, Eddie contributed the score and instrumental songs to the movie The Wild Life.[35] The score was laden with drum machine and hinted at sounds and riffs that would come with their next two albums, 1984 and 5150.
1984 (released on January 9, 1984) was a commercial success, going five-times platinum after a year of release.[36] Recorded at Eddie's newly built 5150 Studios, the album featured keyboards, which had only been used sporadically on previous albums. The lead single, "Jump", featured a synthesizer hook and anthemic lyrics inspired by news coverage of a suicidal jumper. It became the band's first and only No. 1 pop hit with Roth, garnering them a Grammy nomination.[37]
Other singles included "Panama" (No. 13 U.S.), "I'll Wait" (also No. 13 U.S.), and "Hot for Teacher". Three of the songs had popular music videos on MTV. 1984 was praised by critics[39][40][41] and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard charts behind Michael Jackson's Thriller (which notably had a guitar solo by Eddie on "Beat It").
Following the 1984 Tour, Roth decided to quit and form a new band. Group members have given different reasons for the split, but all were firmly rooted in control of the band's sound, artistic direction, singles released and pace. Roth was concerned about Eddie playing music outside of Van Halen. Roth was also launching a successful solo career with two hit cover songs off his Crazy from the Heat EP, a remake of the Beach Boys' classic "California Girls" (#3 U.S.) and a pairing of the classic Al Jolson standard "Just a Gigolo" and "I Ain't Got Nobody"(#12 U.S.), which had previously been paired together by Louis Prima. Roth was also offered a $20-million film deal for a script titled Crazy from the Heat. Roth hoped Van Halen would contribute the soundtrack; however, the film deal fell through when CBS Pictures was reorganized in 1986.
Van Halen's musical style has been described as hard rock,[6][128][129] heavy metal,[6][130][131][132] AOR,[133] pop rock,[134] and glam metal.[135]
Final members
Former members