Who was the better Van Halen frontman?

[mar10s]

Sammy was better. He's back now? - please confirm.

Dave had all the moves but Sammy is/was a better singer and could get a better range from the band..

Sammy is not in the band anymore.  He tours on his own and I've been to all of his solo tours since the departure from VH in 06.  He can still put on a great show and does his shows with Michael Anthony for at least half the show.  The band is ready to tour in 2007 with DLR as the lead singer.  Michael Anthony, the bass player, as of now will not tour with the band.  Eddie's son, so far, is slated to be the bass player for the tour.  They may also have a "guest" tour also as another bass player.

As far as which singer is the best...matter of opinion.  Sammy had better range but Dave could really entertain the crowd.  However, VH never debuted at #1 on the album charts till Sammy came along and 5150 was released.  Dave can't sing worth shit now, mostly talkes through all the songs (saw him this past summer).  But the tour will be entertaining.

[knny187]

DLR

[Blockhead]

Guns was definitely the one band of the 80s that could have been big...I mean Stones big.......all the songs you listed kick ass, as well as Don't Cry, Knockin on Heavens Door

Word! In the song 'Double Talkin Jive' it's great cuz at the end of the lyrics before that awesome guitar solo Axl is like..."you dig...youknowwhatImsayin?" Hahahaha!

 My first show 3 yrs ago...I posed to POISON's Fallen Angel. My 2nd show I did Cindferella 'Gypsy Road'.

 

[corinth]

Word! In the song 'Double Talkin Jive' it's great cuz at the end of the lyrics before that awesome guitar solo Axl is like..."you dig...youknowwhatImsayin?" Hahahaha!

 My first show 3 yrs ago...I posed to POISON's Fallen Angel. My 2nd show I did Cindferella 'Gypsy Road'.

 

Cinderella is definitely underrated. I have "Nobody's Fool" on my mp3 player right now.

[Whiskey]

case in point. i know you're too young to have listened to van halen when they were actually relevant, so ask your mom if she has any old tapes laying around and listen to the self-titled and II.

HaHa owned!

[Blockhead]

Cinderella is definitely underrated. I have "Nobody's Fool" on my mp3 player right now.

That's a BAD ASS song! Download 'NightSongs'. Or 'Comming Home'.


 "..I count the falling tears that fall before my ey-eeey...seems like a thousand years since we broke the ties...I call you on the phone..."

 Tom Keifer is and was a great front man and guitarist. I seen them live numerous times and always ...they always rock the house. The begin their set with 'Save Me'.

[AVBG]

Sammy is not in the band anymore.  He tours on his own and I've been to all of his solo tours since the departure from VH in 06.  He can still put on a great show and does his shows with Michael Anthony for at least half the show.  The band is ready to tour in 2007 with DLR as the lead singer.  Michael Anthony, the bass player, as of now will not tour with the band.  Eddie's son, so far, is slated to be the bass player for the tour.  They may also have a "guest" tour also as another bass player.

As far as which singer is the best...matter of opinion.  Sammy had better range but Dave could really entertain the crowd.  However, VH never debuted at #1 on the album charts till Sammy came along and 5150 was released.  Dave can't sing worth shit now, mostly talkes through all the songs (saw him this past summer).  But the tour will be entertaining.

wow. great info, much appreciated.

[natural al]

I would garentee that I know more about VH than anyone on this site.  I've got stuff from them as far back as 1974 when they played the starwood and the whiskey.  I've got the demos they did with gene simmons, I've got the 25 song demo they did for warner bros.  I've got the last concert they did before VH1, I've got about 150 shows on cassette from 74-95.  I've got stuff sammy did with montrose for a radio broadcast in 73 and 74, I've got the 5150 demos at least 100 videos...I've got almost everything a VH fan could want.

Both guys are great, Dave was an incredible showman but he was a gigantic ego maniac at the end.  He did a 10 or 15 minute Ti-Chi solo on the 1984 tour-BTW the backing music for this turned out to be Mine all Mine from OU812.  The boots from 84 and almost unlistenable, they sound terrible, DAve does not sing anymore he "talks" all the words.  His albums he did were classic, I won't take it away from him.

Sammy's stuff is "different" alot of different things happened when Sam came along.  Eddie wanted to do keyboard songs and sam could do em.  5150 and OU812 are great records but they're not as rockin as Dave's stuff but I still think they're great records.  5150 is great from begining to end, incredible music.  OU812 is very diverse but it has some filler.  FUCK and BAlance are both really good, FUCK being my favorite VH record..period.

I've seen VH about 8 times, Sammy about 7 and Dave 4 times.

In my opinion...I like Sam better but I would never take away what Dave did with the band.

David Lee Roth IS Van Halen

not really.  If that was the case he'd have been a popular solo artist and he couldn't sell shit as far back as 88.  VH was still one of the biggest bands in the world all the way up unitl the minute Sam got the boot in 96.

[AVBG]

Naturalal... you're full of surprises

[AmateurBB1985]

I prefer GARY SHERONE.  ;DAnyone else a fan of Extreme's "More than Words"

[AVBG]

I prefer GARY SHERONE.  ;DAnyone else a fan of Extreme's "More than Words"

Cherone was good when he did the extreme stuff. Not much chop in VH.

[corinth]

I would garentee that I know more about VH than anyone on this site.  I've got stuff from them as far back as 1974 when they played the starwood and the whiskey.  I've got the demos they did with gene simmons, I've got the 25 song demo they did for warner bros.  I've got the last concert they did before VH1, I've got about 150 shows on cassette from 74-95.  I've got stuff sammy did with montrose for a radio broadcast in 73 and 74, I've got the 5150 demos at least 100 videos...I've got almost everything a VH fan could want.

Both guys are great, Dave was an incredible showman but he was a gigantic ego maniac at the end.  He did a 10 or 15 minute Ti-Chi solo on the 1984 tour-BTW the backing music for this turned out to be Mine all Mine from OU812.  The boots from 84 and almost unlistenable, they sound terrible, DAve does not sing anymore he "talks" all the words.  His albums he did were classic, I won't take it away from him.

Sammy's stuff is "different" alot of different things happened when Sam came along.  Eddie wanted to do keyboard songs and sam could do em.  5150 and OU812 are great records but they're not as rockin as Dave's stuff but I still think they're great records.  5150 is great from begining to end, incredible music.  OU812 is very diverse but it has some filler.  f**k and BAlance are both really good, f**k being my favorite VH record..period.

I've seen VH about 8 times, Sammy about 7 and Dave 4 times.

In my opinion...I like Sam better but I would never take away what Dave did with the band.

not really.  If that was the case he'd have been a popular solo artist and he couldn't sell shit as far back as 88.  VH was still one of the biggest bands in the world all the way up unitl the minute Sam got the boot in 96.

Naturalal, I agree, 5150 is great, one of those cd's you put on and don't have to skip one song. But the first two VH albums with Dave are incredible. To most people that will always be Van Halen. I still get chills whenever the intro to You really got me comes on to this day and have to turn the volume up.

[davidpaul]

I would garentee that I know more about VH than anyone on this site.  I've got stuff from them as far back as 1974 when they played the starwood and the whiskey.  I've got the demos they did with gene simmons, I've got the 25 song demo they did for warner bros.  I've got the last concert they did before VH1, I've got about 150 shows on cassette from 74-95.  I've got stuff sammy did with montrose for a radio broadcast in 73 and 74, I've got the 5150 demos at least 100 videos...I've got almost everything a VH fan could want.

Both guys are great, Dave was an incredible showman but he was a gigantic ego maniac at the end.  He did a 10 or 15 minute Ti-Chi solo on the 1984 tour-BTW the backing music for this turned out to be Mine all Mine from OU812.  The boots from 84 and almost unlistenable, they sound terrible, DAve does not sing anymore he "talks" all the words.  His albums he did were classic, I won't take it away from him.

Sammy's stuff is "different" alot of different things happened when Sam came along.  Eddie wanted to do keyboard songs and sam could do em.  5150 and OU812 are great records but they're not as rockin as Dave's stuff but I still think they're great records.  5150 is great from begining to end, incredible music.  OU812 is very diverse but it has some filler.  f**k and BAlance are both really good, f**k being my favorite VH record..period.

I've seen VH about 8 times, Sammy about 7 and Dave 4 times.

In my opinion...I like Sam better but I would never take away what Dave did with the band.

not really.  If that was the case he'd have been a popular solo artist and he couldn't sell shit as far back as 88.  VH was still one of the biggest bands in the world all the way up unitl the minute Sam got the boot in 96.

haha i always thought u were a cool g, now i know why

[natural al]

Here's a cool little known VH fact:

Marshal Berle used to manage VH-he's the nephew of Milton Berle.  Anyway rumor has it Dave didn't get along with him very well.  Dave's dad was a very wealthy Doctor and used his money to get Berle out of the picture.  The band then hired Niel Monk to manage him, Niel and Dave were very close.  Some people believed that Niel was hired with the sole intention of pushing Dave.

Eddie used to turn his back to the crowd when he did his solos so nobody could steal his technique.

Rumor has it that Ted Templeman pushed hard for Sammy Hagar to replace dave as far back as 1978.  He presented this to the band and they turned him down.  Wether this is true or not has never been confirmed but when Sammy and VH played a few festivals Ed went over and said "hi" to sam and told him he really dug the stuff sammy did with montrose.  Ed later said that dAve was all pissy about sammy.  Sam didn't even know that he was up for consideration until he joined the band.  Ed, Al, Sam and Mike talk about this alot in interviews from 86-88.

[AVBG]

Naturalal, I agree, 5150 is great, one of those cd's you put on and don't have to skip one song. But the first two VH albums with Dave are incredible. To most people that will always be Van Halen. I still get chills whenever the intro to You really got me comes on to this day and have to turn the volume up.

I like the guitar sound in "summer nights"

[AVBG]

Here's a cool little known VH fact:

Marshal Berle used to manage VH-he's the nephew of Milton Berle.  Anyway rumor has it Dave didn't get along with him very well.  Dave's dad was a very wealthy Doctor and used his money to get Berle out of the picture.  The band then hired Niel Monk to manage him, Niel and Dave were very close.  Some people believed that Niel was hired with the sole intention of pushing Dave.

Eddie used to turn his back to the crowd when he did his solos so nobody could steal his technique.

I knew this..

[natural al]

Naturalal, I agree, 5150 is great, one of those cd's you put on and don't have to skip one song. But the first two VH albums with Dave are incredible. To most people that will always be Van Halen. I still get chills whenever the intro to You really got me comes on to this day and have to turn the volume up.

the first 2 are great.  I listened to them alot but I listened to 5150 for 2 years straight.  Everyday until OU812 came out.  VHII is basically just left over songs from VH1 demos.  They demo'd or played almost everything from that disk live.  You're no good's into used to be for a song they did back in the club, I think it was called "Just what she wanted" or something like that.  Dance the night away was original.  Bottoms up, Somebody get me a doctor, Outta love....Beutiful Girs (which was demo'd as "bring on the girls") all left overs.  Once I found that out the CD lost a little luster to me.

FYI-Eddie played VH1 for a band called Angel a few weeks before it was released.  that band went right into the sutdio and tried to record and release thier version of You Really Got me...so VH released it to radio stations waaaay ahead of schedule.

[natural al]

I like the guitar sound in "summer nights"

it's actully recorded on a stienberg guitar using a trans trem device.  It lets you go up and down in keys while playing or something.  Ed plays it on Summer nights and on Get up off of 5150.  He uses something similar on Pleasure Dome from FUCK and Me Wise Magic form BOV1.  I think he used it for Ballot or the bullet form VH3 also.

They stopped playing summer nights in 91 cause eddie signed with music man and couldn't use the stienberg guitar anymore.

[corinth]

Natural al, wasn't there a story behind the song "Jamie's crying" also? Do you know it?

[natural al]

Natural al, wasn't there a story behind the song "Jamie's crying" also? Do you know it?

it was written in the studio.  It's the first time Ed played to a backing track, they asked him to and he didn't really know how, he played everything else live up to that point.  I've never heard any stories about the lyrics being anything special............

let's see...here's another little VH factoid.  The band recorded "in the midnight hour" by...wilson picket(?) for diverdown and again for 1984 but never used it.  They completely miss a verse in pretty woman.  the vid for pretty woman got banned in Japan cause Mike Anthony is a Samarui in it.  the Japaneese didn't have  a problem with that but if you look really close when Mike jumps on his horse and rides off the headbadn that he's wearing which has the Japaneese flag on it is upside down.  they lost thier minds over that.  VH recorded "Intruder" after making the video for pretty woman cause the vid was longer than the song was.

[mar10s]

it's actully recorded on a stienberg guitar using a trans trem device.  It lets you go up and down in keys while playing or something.  Ed plays it on Summer nights and on Get up off of 5150.  He uses something similar on Pleasure Dome from f**k and Me Wise Magic form BOV1.  I think he used it for Ballot or the bullet form VH3 also.

They stopped playing summer nights in 91 cause eddie signed with music man and couldn't use the stienberg guitar anymore.

Damn Al...some great info...thought i knew the most!  A sittar was used for Ballot or the Bullet off of III.  Good point about the demos...you ever hear "Voodoo Queen"?  Great song!  They later used the music for the song "Mean Street". 
I actually thought Templeman and Roth were close? 
I listen to the 5150 album most when i work out, i really like the energy, especially from "Good Enough".  Oh and fyi, at the Sammy tour this summer, they were playing "Summer Nights".  Sammy said it is the most requested song to play live...played that and "Good Enough".  Sounded pretty good too, but would've prefered to see the Van Hales bros. perform it with him.
They're actually up for RR Hall of Fame this next year. 

[natural al]

Ed plays the begining of the guitar solo in Sam's "eagles fly" he also played bass and go produced that disk with sammy.  Do a search on WinMX or anything else and look for a song called I want some action.  It's a left over track from 5150 and the only song that was leaked by the band since they went to 5150.  There is a track from VH3 out there called That's why I love you that was on the initial press releases of III.

I want some action's music was later used for a steve lukathar song called Twist the knife...ed plays bass on the lukathar track and Luckathur provided alot of background vocals on VH records-he's uncredited.  there are even rumors that he played guitar on some tracks from Balance cause ed was too wasted to play them while they were recording them.

Can't get this stuff no more from BOV1 was originally recorded with sam as "the Backdoor Schuffle" for balance.  sam heard it and called the band and got paid off cause they used his melody...or that's the rumor that's out there.

Damn Al...some great info...thought i knew the most!  A sittar was used for Ballot or the Bullet off of III.  Good point about the demos...you ever hear "Voodoo Queen"?  Great song!  They later used the music for the song "Mean Street". 
I actually thought Templeman and Roth were close? 
I listen to the 5150 album most when i work out, i really like the energy, especially from "Good Enough".  Oh and fyi, at the Sammy tour this summer, they were playing "Summer Nights".  Sammy said it is the most requested song to play live...played that and "Good Enough".  Sounded pretty good too, but would've prefered to see the Van Hales bros. perform it with him.
They're actually up for RR Hall of Fame this next year. 

Eddie plays a sitar on the isturmental before ballot or the bullet.  Can't remember the name.  Ed also plays a mini guitar for the solo on BOTB and uses a stone his son found on the beach instead of a pic for that song.

I've heard Voodoo Queen..and Last night which turned out to be Hang em high off of DD.  I've literally got 100's of tapes, I've heard pretty much everything.  Look for a song called Ain't No Stoppin...it used to be thier signature song in the club...or at least that's what I heard.  I've got a tape from 76 where they do almost all covers..they do the beatles...everything.  I've even got them in 74 doing a montrose cover song..dave singing sammy.

the band at this point is a joke to me.  if they go into the RnR HOF it's gonna be embarrassing to see them there.  everyone hates everyone....it's ed and al and then there's Sam and mike... and then there's dave.  Hell ed's going around saying his kids the bass player for VH these days.....

i saw sam over the summer too...it was great.

[NarcissisticDeity]

Al I heard that Michael Anthony didn't play when they recorded albums is this true?

[corinth]

Do you know if VH has any plans to release a box set that contains old and new plus any of the unreleased stuff you've mentioned?

[Luv2Hurt]

DLR