No-Skip Albums: "5150" by Van Halen

For better or worse, much of the music I like from the early Eighties is due in large part to MTV, which was a ubiquitous presence in the lives of teenagers. As far as growing up in Poplar Bluff, even more rural and remote 40 years ago compared to today, it was the only outlet beyond country music radio or fossilized classic rock/AOR programming.

I became a Van Halen fan mainly due to the airplay their "1984" album generated on MTV. That album was a finalist for the ten I ultimately chose for this latest blog project, but there are a couple of tracks on side two that are eminently skippable. It was MTV that put VH's lead singer David Lee Roth's solo videos on maximum rotation, which was probably yet another rift in the band that led to Diamond Dave's departure (and subsequent slide into trivial obscurity for 20+ years).

It was also MTV where I first heard the announcement that Van Halen had selected the Red Rocker, Sammy Hagar, as their new lead singer. I already owned three Hagar albums at this point (one of which led off this blog project), so I was a much bigger fan of Sammy than I was of Van Halen. For me, this was a dream union, the ultimate merger of rock's greatest guitarist with one of its most entertaining singers.

Oh, the anticipation for the release of their first album in 1986. MTV teased us with early band interviews, but the music itself remained as top secret as the USSR's nuclear holdings. I bugged Eddie Boster at our local music store, "Salt of the Earth," for weeks for confirmation of a release date. Finally, on March 24, 1986, the album dropped. I can't remember for sure if Boster had a copy available on that day exactly, but I do know that the day he did, I was there when the doors opened to buy my own copy, which is the same album I own to this day.

I have to confess, I was not initially impressed with their first single, "Why Can't This Be Love?". It didn't sound like Van Halen or Sammy Hagar, which was, of course, the point—it was something completely new. It didn't take long, however, to warm up to the new sound, and as the album kept getting played, I was completely hooked with the new sound.

Side one opens with "Good Enough," a gritty rock tune, followed by "Why Can't This Be Love?", which features much more keyboard (an Eddie Van Halen decision) than their previous works. The third song, "Get Up," is another rocker, followed by back-to-back monster singles to close out side one, "Dreams," and "Summer Nights."

Side two begins as side one ended, with two huge singles that became signature staples of the Van Hagar era, "Best of Both Worlds," and "Love Walks In." The title track hits third, followed by "Inside" as the closer.

Not that anyone heeds boundaries on the Internet, but I don't offer this pick as yet another forum for the Dave vs. Sammy debate. The band made some great albums with unforgettable songs with both singers. Dave chose to leave, so I've never understood the hate directed at Sammy by Dave fans. I own all four of the Van Hagar albums, and they're all strong efforts (which makes their ultimate split even sadder for me, as well as the Van Halen brothers ongoing animosity toward Sammy and former bassist Michael Anthony). Their premiere effort, however, stands out as the most unskippable of all the possible picks for me.