5150, OU812, and F*U*C*K came out while I was in college. I saw them on tour a couple of times during that era. It was the right music, at the right time for me. When I hear songs off of these albums, it takes me back to those halcyon days of youth. I love the albums from both Dave and Sammy with the band. I don't know why some "fans" have to hate either era. It's all awesome music.

Noel Monk deserves major credit for coming up with a strategy that got them out of their shit contract.

Why did they do that to Michael Anthony?? Eddie recording all the bass parts. They really treated him badly.

You know you’re massively successful when your “worst”selling album still goes double platinum in the states alone lol

I don't think Dave's ego was the problem, Eddie's ego was even bigger. It was just creative differences.

Finish What You Started is my favorite Hagar-era song. A very fresh sound for Eddie.

Don't tell me what love can do, and Not Enough have been on my playlist for a while now, great well written songs.

I loved BOTH versions of Van Halen but I can also say that everyone involved in that band at any given point were aholes with the exception of Sammy and Michael Anthony....those 2 guys are gold on the inside!

It was never Dave who wanted Van Halen to go in a pop direction, it was Eddie.

I'm grateful for the Sammy era. VH became more musical, diverse, and interesting. Pre-Sammy had some good songs, but my personal taste has Van Hagar out of sight beyond anything else. Glad other people's opinions don't affect my enjoyment of it =)

Leffler was the glue, Sammy was the pen, Mike was the everyman and the brothers were serated staples poking holes after Ray "the moron" Danniels poisened them. Ray Danniels is responsible for the 1996 breakup. Ed's life started falling apart after this. I blame Danniels 100% 🤟

I didn't know that back story about the change in managers. That says a lot about Sammy's judge of character. He's such a positive guy.

Great recap! IMO, VH with DLR was a band with an incredible guitarist. VH with Sammy was an incredible band! Sammy is a true talented musician and a quality human.

A lot of this I knew, a lot I didn't....interesting stuff! Balance is probably the hardest, most rocking of those from the Sammy era. My first concert was in the 1982 on the Diver Down tour.......and then I saw them on the first tour with Sammy in 1986 for 5150....both at The Forum in LA......and I was there for Monsters Of Rock when it came to The Coliseum in LA.....each of those shows were great, with a special nod to MOR for being a 9+ hour epic rock orgy with a bunch of great bands!

This band really rocks the world. Thank you for tje beautiful sharing about Van Halen.

Supposedly Ed had hundreds of riffs, ideas and songs on tape but their albums were short with not many songs on them.

I was there from the beginning in 1978 and followed every year and album release until Sammy was kicked out. I was Sammy fan long before a Van Halen fan. What turned me off was all the drama from the Van Halen brothers. Talk about ego. Hagar still continued to rock and party while Van Halen slowly became irrelevant. Losing Edward was a blow. I was heartbroken 💔, but I'll always keep cranking up the VH tunes along with the Hagar tunes. I'm just here for the music. Screw the drama.

I don’t think Ed was that sober during balance

Awesome vid! Look forward to the next!

You always deliver da goods

i prefer the Roth songs but he did kinda screw himself. All the cover tracks and other stuff to pad some of the albums was frustrating to me. Sammy's version is not for me but I respect the quantum leap they made to redefine themselves to bigger success. One thing that bugs me is how Michael Anthony got short-changed. Aside from killer bass, his harmonies contributed greatly!

The fact that Sammy and Mike are touring and loving life and Alex is selling his gear with no to jam with and Wolf touring as a cover band.......I would say Sammy and Mike WON!!!!!! hahahahaha! I've never been a VH fan and always thought they were bubble gum no matter what version or lineup, but it is great rock history.

Lots of info I haven’t heard before. Excellent job.

I didn't really get into VH, until Sammy joined the band...

They did Michael Anthony dirty. Idc what they say. He was loyal from day 1. Always there until he wasn't...

It's amazing that Dave could step out and make some hits with cover tunes . Equaly amazing that van halen could write the first album without Dave and the songs were good enough that they could play most of them and ditch most the roth tunes . Van Halen was metal. Pop metal . They were no doubt the most talented in that genre . They created and were the kings of that genre for better or worse .

Excelente work!! 👍🏼👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

So good video!👍👍👍

Cool !!!

Eddie Van Halen just strikes me as a pretty humble crazy waster, he did it his way at his own pace and it is what it is, a legendary guitarist playing with really good Musicians

Thanks again for a great video 👍🇺🇸

Absolutely fantastic have a wonderful day ❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊 Jimmy

It never ends...

The standard at the time was full albums (not demos) containing banger after banger. How did they come up with so many good songs in a row? Each track being an introduction to the next 😢 music fans don't get that anymore

Great doc Jimmy🤘🤘

No brown MnM's, brown is only allowed in your sound. News flash, the only one that thought Dave was the main attraction was Dave

The Sammy lineup has always been my favourite.

Finish What Ya’ Started…Eddie played that tune on a stock 1964 Stratocaster.

Pro work Hoss!

Nice job!

No doubt Dave was a great front man, but without Eddie he flopped. Eddie’s guitar will live on, Dave’s singing, not so much.

Dave's high school lyrics wha? Please.

What trips me out is they gave the bass player a huge pay cut because he didn't do enough but I have heard that drums don't get royalty are song writing credits drums are in the musical category of arrangement and that get one time payment every arrangement the drums do but after that they are not included in royalty sounds to me the drummer got what the bass player normally gets and the bass player got what the drums get like they switched it around but who knows all I know is someone who sings and plays on the album should get some points off the album if he doesn't he nothing more then a studio player can't even consider him part of the band eddi would hard to deal with but the 80s were about getting it all now not later the future was now in the 80 everything is mine and greed is good to major 80s ideals man I miss those days lol

According to Sammy's book, Eddie wasn't sober during Balance.

Great channel

I love that you actually narrate your own vids, hiccups and all. I cant watch a vid with a robot voice, ever. You state what happened; no hype, no opintonated BS, just "here's what happened". you just earned a subscriber.. VH forever; whichever version.

I never bought a single Van Hagar record!

Interestingly enough, Ted Templeman, who was their producer and worked for Warners, had suggested Sammy from the beginning when they got signed. Luckily they didn't heed that advice or we wouldn't have all that classic stuff. As much as Roth was a difficult personality to work with, I really think they wouldn't have been that successful early on. For all Dave's inadequacies he helped make them as influential as they became.

Hey next please do how dave hooked up with steve vai!!!

As much as I loved 1984, I cannot stand "Jump", and Sammy Hagar 100% right. I understand they did play my favorite song of that work: "I'll Wait". All in all, I love the Hagar years. I met Sammy Hagar once, and he was a very kind gentleman. 😊

Time and record sales did show that Roth was NOT bigger than Van Halen as an entity.

Great band unmatched guitar player all great singers end of story

Do you think you could cover Jeff Healy? I think he was a very not known musician. He was blind that also played with SRV! And I think it would be cool for a video dedicated to him! Since his background isn’t really well known or talked about !

After all the years of finger pointing.... Blame Chart as goes : Eddie = 33.3% Sam = 33.3% Dave = 33.3%

Don't know if it's just me, but I can't even name more than a handful of songs from the Hagar era. Edit: And hearing the narrator talk about the goofy and schmaltz lyrics, I think this is the biggest problem of the Hagar era. Just my taste on the subject.

Wolfgang is exactly what you'd expect from a person's son

There were only 4 guys that could have ever made van halen happen the way it did. Hagar is very talented but in many die hard van halen afficionados minds hagar era wasn't even close to what we all heard with the original 4 members. I believe eddie and alex simply got tired of dave, they got tired of sammy and became annoyed with everything in their lives pertaining to music and business. Dave thought van halen was his band and sammy tried the same thing.

I see these comments and see the same stuff regarding VH being pop after dave left... i hate that! 2 things: VH always had soft pop songs! AND the only real pop rock album was 5150 which unfortunately (in this case) is the most popular. Ou812 has some heavy shit on there, and the next two albums had straight up metal songs... the dave era never had true metal songs.

My 1st =VH= album was 5150.

Source of infection!! 🎸🎸🎸🎸

I saw VH live with Hagar. But what a bunch of assholes the bros VH were, businesswise.

Eric Burdon would have been a great replacement for Dave Lee Roth. He was great with the Animals, War and solo. What a great voice he still has even if he has been going in singing more than 60 years. He has sung as a guest with Bon jovi, Bruce springsteen amongst others.

Definitely went from hairy chested women to hot chicks in the crowd.

Why can't this be love sammy I ain't talking about love dave that says everything the difference is pretty clear lol

Eddie Van Halen was a fan and a friend of guitar great Frank Zappa. Sammy Hagar is an incredibly good guitar player, melodic, and technically talented. His guitar skills are grossly underrated by too many people.

I really wouldn't consider the Hagar era "pop". Commercial success doesn't immediately mean the genre has switched to pop. Or at least, if it was then I would argue much of DLR Halen was also pop. Jump being the most pop track in their discography and Panama not far behind. Regardless, Hagar is the more talented by a lightyear and that is objective fact. DLR may have been a performer but he was also an egotistical tw@.

5150 album sales success can also be attributed to the levels VH reached after their success of the first 6 albums and especially peaking in 1984. It was the last VH album I purchased until they reunited with Dave and did the album in 2012. I finally listened to OU812 in its entirety in 2018 and saw why I never bought it 30 years prior. I did go to VH concerts in 86 and 88 and they were still so energetic! The hits do make for good later 80s radio songs. But the rawness and architecture of the albums with Dave are so much better and heavier. The Sammy years were commercial. That album they did with the Extreme singer, YIKES! But, the 90s was big yikes! And in all fairness, fairness, the second part of the 80s was very commercial. Their 3rd album with Sammy was their strongest of that era. But the two songs they did with Dave for the Greatest Hits albums still blew away anything in the Sammy era by far! I’m so glad they toured again with Dave. Those songs are amazing!!!! It’s a concert you wanna be drunk for! They are an ultimate party band! But I could also see why they had issues with Dave. It was evident on the stage how annoying he could be: he does think he is the show. He is great showman but he was never anywhere on the level of Eddie. And Eddie never took a night off! Dave cut corners big time! Eddie played it as we knew it. “Cmon Dave!” Sing the lyrics, sing it on time.

DLR was no mastermind of anything his solo career was over back in 1991.

These are great videos. You've done an awesome job. Keep up the great work.

Awesome documentary my friend. Great channel. Van Halen forever

Love the first four VH albums , I cried when I first heard ' Jump ' ( keyboards ) out of disgust , yet 1984 still has good songs , never like Bette Midler singing for VH and still dont ...and SO WHAT !!!??? Thanks !

VH had the best guitar player , the best drummer at the time, but DLR was such a clown , when Hagar came along , I knew the band was complete .

I completely lost interest in the band when Dave left… I remember hearing the new stuff with Hagar and it sounded like the band Foreigner with a good guitarist (a line I’ve been quoted on by fellow musicians) - AOR radio rock and it just sounded so cheesy to me. After watching this I have more understanding of why it didn’t resonate with me. And yes I tried to like this version of the band and Balance was definitely the best album of that incarnation.

No matter what. Eddie has passed. He loved drugs more than music. Alex will not with Sam and Michael. Roth wants to control the tribute but he can't sing. What is left is what is left. I will not see what is left. Why? Ticket prices are to expensive for what you get! I prefer a tribute band or Lynchmob with George Lynch at a club. The VanHalen brothers did this to themselves.

After the album VH II it went all down hill artistically….became too commercial…….

Dlr era 57 million records sold…Sammy era 27 million sold…you can have a number 1 album and fade quickly Van Halen 1 and 1984 sold more than all the Sammy albums combined…

Roth=better front man Hagar= better singer

Wolf is awesome

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="156">2:36</a> daves hair starting its farewell tour 🤣

I enjoyed the Sam years but Dave made VH the Mighty Van Halen. Look at Montrose. Great band with great musicians and good songs. That's what VH was with Sam. And had they had Sam at the beginning I don't think we'd be talking about them. Maybe Ed but Not VH. Dave Made them Mega Stars with great songs and pushed Ed to be his Best. When Ed was his best, He was The Best! Worked perfectly. Long live the Mighty VH!!

Hagar was an amazing lyricist she unlike Dave a great guitar player

Definitely changed to the mall crowd, never was the same 😅

F U C K is my #1 Van Halen Album!! Just wishing I could find & buy either a DVD or Blu Ray video of 'Right here Right Now'.

EVH was an asshole, treated people like sh#t . Dave was hard work .Let Dave do his movie thing n it wld have been fine. It was good w Sammy. Started great but it faded .

Sammy Hagar years of the best of Van Halen David Lee Roth is nothing but a clown always have been always will be

turn on the night is a great track funny how that chord progression worked so well.

I would say van halen was musically better with sammy the dude is a way better singer plus the man can play guitar as well really well Dave was a good showman but was a so so singer but roths ego got to high so it was best the dude left the band

The music was ballsier in the Hagar era.

As a former bass player I can tell you that Van Halen bass lines can be done by a college trained Chimpanzee. This band almost singlehandedly destroyed Rock Bass guitar.

It was 5150 tiiiiime!!! Eddie was freed musically. Songs were a class above Dave’s high school stuff.

The hagar years were the best.

The first 6 albums are the best by far. There's no contest. That being said, I'm sure Dave is quite the a- hole. He certainly hasn't aged well.

I didn't touch 5150 or 0u812 but, I had Eat'em and Smile and still had the Davie lee roth band posters. Sammy and that stupid Ramen noodle hair. So sick of hearing about Wolfgang

I like Sammy but Van Hager sucks ass!

Balanced sucked!

SAM HALEN SUCKS!!! 🤘🌎❤️

Dave can’t sing

It comes down to this... No #1 albums with Dave... EVERY album with Sammy went #1...!!!

Much better with Sammy in my opinion