Van Halen III (1998)

All songs credited to Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Gary Cherone, and Alex Van Halen.
1."Neworld" (Instrumental) – 1:45
2."Without You" – 6:30
3."One I Want" – 5:30
4."From Afar" – 5:24
5."Dirty Water Dog" – 5:27
6."Once" – 7:42
7."Fire in the Hole" – 5:31
8."Josephina" – 5:42
9."Year to the Day" – 8:34
10."Primary" (Instrumental) – 1:27
11."Ballot or the Bullet" – 5:42
12."How Many Say I" – 6:04

US #4 UK #43

radio hits:
"Without You" #1 (6 weeks)
"Fire In The Hole" #6
"One I Want" #27

Ah yes, the much-maligned Van Halen III.
The band's first studio album in 3 years saw ex-Extreme frontman Gary Cherrone join the band as new frontman in late 1996 following the Sammy and Dave fiascos.
Many people disliked the album, but the 1998 tour was absolutely awesome and what's interesting is I've been watching some clips from that tour on You Tube and I'm surprised how many fans liked that tour and have been supportive of Gary's live work.
Even more surprising is how many positive comments I've been reading about this album on You Tube as I decided to revist it before posting about it. I'm not saying it was universal praise, but there are some really nice comments about the record and certain tracks.
I have to say, it is indeed better than I remembered it. I even forgot about the 2 weird instrumentals. There are some great songs on here, but there is also a ton of crap and that's not the fault of Cherrone who sings quite well and sounds like Sammy a bit.
"Without You" people seem to forget was a #1 radio smash for 6 weeks and still sounds great. Cool rhythmic work by EVH and a great solo, great backing vox and a cool speed-up by song's end. The video cost a million bucks too! Yikes!
Another Top 10 radio hit was "Fire In The Hole", also on the Lethal Weapon 4 soundtrack. A good rocker with some good screams. Sounds like classic VH in many regards.
"One I Want" was another good tune, so they picked the right tracks for radio.
The problem was some truly horrible songs like "Once" (my God is this really 8 minutes?), "Ballot Or The Bullet", "Dirty Water Dog" and "How Many Say I" a dreary piano/vocal song sung by EVH. The production is also awful-it sounds like it was recorded on someone's iPhone (yeah, I know they weren't around yet).
Perhaps the problem wasn't so much the songs, as the experimenting-this album was EVH's Human Centipede (deal with that analogy!).
But, then there's the harrowing "Year To The Day", a very complex and dark Proggy epic clocking in at nearly 9 minutes. EVH's guitar work on this is extraordinary. Gary also brings it bigtime vocally. The Extreme Proggy side of things shows here. The song is a mini-maisterwork. And, what a solo. Live this was awesome.
"Josephina" has some great Jimmy Page-eswue acoustic guitar work, but the song isn't as good as it could've been. "From Afar" is a large-sounding cimematic track, but like so much here rather dark and out there.
Such a tragedy the infectious, warm, radio-friendly "That's Why I Love You". What a gem this is. Classic VH and such fell-good melodies. This would've been a hit had it been included. Mind boggling it was left off. What a great song.
So, yeah, VH III isn't as bad as anyone says, it is rather daring and experimental and has lousy production and cover art, but it certainly is an album of much discussion!
And I still say the 1998 tour was one of the very best VH ever did.

I'll concede that "Without You" is alright, but for all intents and purposes, VH III was Eddie's solo album. It didn't have a real producer to rein Eddie in and push for better material.

I've said a zillion times before, but this is VH's worst album. And I don't blame Cherone for it, either.

The Best Of Both Worlds (2004)

Disc one
1."Eruption" (Eddie Van Halen) – 1:43 (from Van Halen)
2."It's About Time" (Sammy Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:15 (new song)†
3."Up for Breakfast" (Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:57 (new song)†
4."Learning to See" (Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 5:15 (new song)
5."Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:48 (from Van Halen)
6."Finish What Ya Started" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:24 (from OU812)
7."You Really Got Me" (Ray Davies) – 2:38 (from Van Halen)
8."Dreams" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:53 (from 5150)
9."Hot for Teacher" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:43 (from 1984)
10."Poundcake" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 5:20 (from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge)
11."And the Cradle Will Rock..." (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:34 (from Women and Children First)
12."Black and Blue" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 5:27 (from OU812)
13."Jump" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:04 (from 1984)
14."Top of the World" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:54 (from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge)
15."(Oh) Pretty Woman" (William Dees, Roy Orbison) – 2:53 (from Diver Down)
16."Love Walks In" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 5:11 (from 5150)
17."Beautiful Girls" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:57 (from Van Halen II)
18."Can't Stop Lovin' You" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:08 (from Balance)
19."Unchained" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:29 (from Fair Warning)

Disc two
1."Panama" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:32 (from 1984)
2."Best of Both Worlds" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:49 (from 5150)
3."Jamie's Cryin'" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:30 (from Van Halen)
4."Runaround" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:20 (from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge)
5."I'll Wait" (Anthony, Michael McDonald, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:42 (from 1984)
6."Why Can't This Be Love" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:48 (from 5150)
7."Runnin' with the Devil" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:36 (from Van Halen)
8."When It's Love" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 5:38 (from OU812)
9."Dancing in the Street" (Marvin Gaye, Ivy Hunter, William Stevenson) – 3:45 (from Diver Down)
10."Strung Out"/"Not Enough" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) - 6:48 (from Balance)
11."Feels So Good" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:32 (from OU812)
12."Right Now" (Anthony, Hagar, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 5:22 (from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge)
13."Everybody Wants Some!!" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 5:10 (from Women and Children First)
14."Dance the Night Away" (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 3:10 (from Van Halen II)
15."Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" [live] (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:43 (from Live: Right Here, Right Now)
16."Panama" [live] (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 6:39 (from Live: Right Here, Right Now)
17."Jump" [live] (Anthony, Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen) – 4:20 (from Live: Right Here, Right Now)

UK #15 US #3

radio hits:
"It's About Time" #6
"Up For Breakfast" #33

A very disappointing 2 CD best-of tied in with the 2004 reunion tour w/ Sammy this was not a very satisfactory collection and supposedly a lot of it had to do with DLR being a douche.
What in the world were they thinking including live versions of DLR-era material w/ Sammy from the crappy live album?
Also, opening with "Eruption" and then going into 3 new songs was stupid. Just a poor comp which went Platinum nonetheless.
So many songs that should be here are absent.
Of the 3 new songs only "It's About Time" has any redeeming qualities and it is a fairly heavy song. "Up For Brekfast" is tolerable but that's about it and "Learning To See" is mediocre.
Sammy wanted to do a new album not just a few new tunes but EVH was too bad off for that to even be a possibility. We later learned that EVH played bass on the new songs and forced Michael Anthony to take a paycut and travel seperately just to do the tour. And of course, EVH was a drunken mess at many shows, especially the finale in Arizona where he and Sammy neraly came to blows.

I can't believe Diver Down is 30 years old today. Not my favorite of the original era, but it's not without its charms. Always liked their cover of "Pretty Woman" and "Little Guitars" is a gem.

Of course, when this album came out, I was excited because...it was a new Van Halen album. And I played the hell out of it. I remember seeing it at the mall around spring vacation, but didn't have the money to buy it then and there. And to think, it had only been a year since Fair Warning.

I miss those days of groups putting out albums every year.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/van-hale ... -turns-30/

Van Halen’s ‘Diver Down’ Turns 30

by: Matthew Wilkening

Van Halen‘s fifth album, 1982′s ‘Diver Down,’ turns 30 years old today (April 14). As a hastily-recorded collection featuring only four full-length original songs, this record should by all rights be a disaster.

Instead, it’s just about the most fun thing you can play at your next summer family picnic.

Having barely completed an exhausting world tour in support of their 1981 album ‘Fair Warning,’ their fourth record in as many years, Van Halen was as you can imagine looking forward to taking a little break.

But first, lead singer David Lee Roth reportedly convinced the group to release a cover of Roy Orbison’s ‘(Oh) Pretty Woman‘ as a time-buying, stand-alone single. This move backfired in the best possible way. The track became a sudden hit, and Warner Brothers pressured the band to record an accompanying record… and fast.

Understandably short on new material, Van Halen whipped together a thirty-one minute hodge-podge featuring five cover songs (including their brief album-closing take on Dale Evans’ ‘Happy Trails‘), three short Eddie Van Halen-showcasing instrumentals and just four full-length original songs.

Although some critics, understandably not grading on the curve to account for the rushed recording schedule, criticized the album’s lack of original material, with Rolling Stone declaring it appeared the group was “running out of ideas,” the four original songs on ‘Diver Down’ prove this was hardly the case at all.

The album’s two new rockers, ‘Hang ‘Em High‘ and ‘The Full Bug,’ the latter of which featured Roth on both acoustic guitar and harmonica, have clearly stood the test of time. In fact, the group has been treating fans to occasional renditions of both of these dusted-off gems on their current world tour.

Even more impressively, the album features two of Van Halen’s most textured and mature tracks; the lilting, Spanish-influenced ‘Secrets‘ and the exotic pop-rock guitar symphony that is ‘Little Guitars.’ Anyone who thinks that Van Halen couldn’t have grown up musically with Roth on the microphone should pay attention here.

Despite telling Guitar Player magazine at the time that putting together ‘Diver Down’ at such a hectic pace was “fun” — he and his brother Alex even got to recruit their father Jan to play clarinet on their version of ‘Big Bad Bill (is Sweet William Now)‘ — Eddie later revealed displeasure with the album’s reliance on outside material, and for having to graft a riff he had planned for an original song onto the band’s synth-pop cover of ‘Dancing in the Street.’

This realization led to a major change in how Van Halen operated. In an effort to retain more control over his music, Eddie built a recording studio — named 5150 — at his own home and has used it to create at least part of every one of the band’s albums ever since.

Van Halen would go on to record one more album with Roth, the career-and-genre defining ‘1984,’ before splitting with the singer and entering an entirely different phase of their career with Sammy Hagar on vocals.

Roth immediately kicked off his solo career with the audacious ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile,’ but after a couple of decades, the Van Halen brothers and Roth apparently realized they brought out the best in each other, reunited, toured (minus bassist Michael Anthony) and released the excellent ‘A Different Kind of Truth.’

Wow! 30 years? Loved that album the minute it came out and had on cassette and lp. It was heavily featured at party's we had back in those days.
Can still remember debuting "Dancing In The Street" at one party that had people astounded. That Van Halen??

Still the one I reach for when I want a dose of VH.

A Different Kind Of Truth (2012)

1. "Tattoo" 4:44
2. "She's the Woman" 2:56
3. "You and Your Blues" 3:43
4. "China Town" 3:14
5. "Blood and Fire" 4:26
6. "Bullethead" 2:30
7. "As Is" 4:47
8. "Honeybabysweetiedoll" 3:46
9. "The Trouble with Never" 3:59
10. "Outta Space" 2:53
11. "Stay Frosty" 4:07
12. "Big River" 3:50
13. "Beats Workin' " 5:02

US #2 UK #6

Singles:
"Tattoo" US #67
radio hits:
"Tattoo" #13
"She's The Woman" #23

The first studio album with DLR since 1984, A Different Kind Of Truth is also one of the band's heaviest, if not THE heaviest albums.
But for me, it is severley lacking in writing, mixing and variation.
Almost all of the songs clobber one over the head with attitude and slam hard, but they really start to drift into sameness quickly. Also, DLR is shot vocally. He is passable on the album and was really piss poor when I saw them live in Atlantic City. However, the show was still great musically and DLR does still have some of the old swagger onstage.
It's not a bad album at all, but it's a very distracting, difficult listen for me as a diehard VH fan. When I hear something like "Chinatown" all I hear is a vaccum of noise and some wailing riffs, but not much of a song. I feel the same about cuts like "Bullethead" and "Honeybabysweetiedoll" and "As Is" too.
"Tattoo" was a dreaful choice of lead single, although oddly it is one of the few really catchy or melodic numbers.
A few tunes I find good such as "She's The Woman", "Outta Space", "Big River", "Blood And Fire" and "Stay Frosty", but even most of these ultimately leaves me cold. I think there's only 3 or 4 songs I would go to again in the future. And DLR really sounds bad. The lyrics are also pretty weak.
Fans have been divided-some love it to death and others absolutely do not. Some critics were very kind (others not), but they were generally good to VH for the most part over the years.
this just wasn't what I was looking for personally, and after many listens I'm not sure I'll go back to it any time soon.
EVH is still a demon though and so is Alex. Wolfie has proved his worth, especially live. But honestly, I don't want another album w/ DLR-he can't sing anymore.

There's nothing in this piece that we don't already know, or that hasn't been debated to death already, but it is an anniversary, so I thought it warranted posting.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/15-years ... lease-iii/

15 Years Ago: Van Halen Release ‘III’
by Matthew Wilkening

On March 17, 1998, Van Halen‘s recording career hit its first (and so far only) road bump with the release of ‘III,’ an album that debuted their third singer, former Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone.

After decades of amazing success with two very different frontman — flamboyant original belter David Lee Roth and his more straight-ahead successor Sammy Hagar — Van Halen found themselves estranged from both after a temporary studio reunion with Roth led to Hagar’s departure. (And yes, that’s the extremely short version of what could be a long, hotly debated story all by itself.)

Undaunted, the group began searching for a new singer. Cherone described how quickly his audition proceeded to Rolling Stone: “I’m holding my suitcase, my overnight bag – and Ed goes, ‘You ready to sing?’ I go, ‘Yeah. Can I go to the bathroom first?’ Then we literally went into ’5150,’ three other songs from the Hagar catalog and ‘Jump’ and ‘Panama’ from the Dave era… the Dave stuff was easy. Sammy stuff . . . I thought I’d have a hard time with that, but it was good. I think we sang four songs and Eddie went to the bathroom, came back out and said, ‘Let’s write a song.’ It was a good day.”

The singer promptly inspired newly sober guitar genius Eddie Van Halen to work in a different manner. “I’ve been making music for 37 or 38 years and never has somebody handed me lyrics to work with,” Van Halen told Guitar World in March of 1988 (via VHLinks). This record is the biggest milestone in my life because the lyrics came first, then the music. I finally had something to bounce off.”

Unfortunately, it seems Van Halen had drawn from the new singer well one too many times, as their songwriting chemistry with Cherone didn’t deliver results on a par with the group’s past work.

Eddie’s guitar wizardry remained intact, of course, and songs such as ‘Dirty Water Dog‘ and especially ‘Once‘ found the band exploring new, sophisticated textures and moods rather successfully. But too often, overlong tracks like ‘Without You,’ ‘Year to the Day‘ and ‘Ballot or the Bullet‘ lacked the band’s trademark hooks and sense of melody, with their numerous, sometimes random changes of direction sounding like a lack of focus instead of confident exploration. Eddie also took much flack for his debut turn at the microphone, the dramatic, overly didactic, and rather Roger Waters-sounding piano opus ‘How Many Say I.’

Fan response to ‘III” wasn’t very strong, as it became the first Van Halen record not to sell at least a million copies. The supporting tour also met with less than stellar sales, despite the fact that the group unearthed many Roth-era songs they had avoided during their time with Hagar. After reportedly beginning work on a second album together in 1999, the group fired Cherone.

Still, as he points out in the same Rolling Stone interview, “I was one of three singers in the mighty Van Halen. You can’t take that away from me.” Somewhere, George Lazenby is nodding vigorously.

Five years later, Van Halen recorded three new songs with Hagar for another greatest hits album, then embarked on an ill-fated tour with him that seems to have ended the friendship between those two camps once and for all. In 2007 the group finally reunited with Roth (but without original bassist Michael Anthony, now replaced by Eddie’s son Wolfgang on bass) for a highly successful tour. Nearly 14 years after the release of ‘III,’ Van Halen released ‘A Different Kind of Truth,’ their first studio album with Roth on vocals in nearly three decades.

It's funny that to this day, when I think of VH, I think of them in terms of "both" the Roth and Hagar eras. Then, after a minute, I remember there was a third era...or error, as it were.

It's like Motley Crue's or Iron Maiden's turn with whats-his-face.

Or Genesis with what's-his-face....