Van Halen

Best Of Volume 1

Was it worth it?

Review Score:

(8/10)
Sammy Hagar wanted no part of this album. Van Halen was still selling out concerts all over the U.S., and he felt it wasn't the right time for the band to release a greatest hits package. Not to mention that Hagar didn't want to be featured on the same CD as David Lee Roth.

Unfortunately, Eddie and Alex Van Halen disagreed, eventually bringing David Lee Roth into the studio to record some new songs for the greatest hits CD. Once Hagar got word of this, Van Halen, as we knew it, was finished.

Knowing that, it's hard to listen to this CD without thinking about everything that happened before its release.

For the casual Van Halen fans, "Best of, Vol. 1" is a fairly good representation of Van Halen's biggest hits. While "Hot For Teacher" and "Top of the World" are suspiciously absent, the remainder of the CD covers the essential mainstream tunes from each era of Van Halen.

The CD opens with songs from the David Lee Roth era, providing a fair and balanced selection of Diamond Dave's much-too-short tenure with Van Halen. Highlights include "Runnin' With the Devil", "Unchained", and their biggest hit, "Jump".

The second half of the CD is devoted to the Sammy Hagar era. It's a shame that "Van Hagar's" biggest hits were usually the radio-friendly, keyboard-heavy songs, because there is some great Hagar-era material that is missing from this disk. I would have loved to have seen "Runaround", "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)", "5150", "Best of Both Worlds" on here, but I suppose that's what "Volume 2" is for, right?

For the more serious Van Halen fans, let's face it... you're buying this for the two new songs featuring David Lee Roth on vocals. "Can't Get This Stuff No More" is an admirable attempt at recapturing the swagger of the Mighty Van Halen, but it falls a little short. Musically, Van Halen has matured, Roth has not. His obscure free-style lyrics don't coexist well with the direction of the rest of the band. "Me Wise Magic", on the other hand, is a complete success - the perfect union of the mature Van Halen's music and harmonies with Roth's lyrics. Along with "Humans Being", these are the two reasons why any fan of Van Halen should buy this CD.

Where have you gone, Van Halen?

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