Greatest American and most influential Hard Rock band ever!! These guys spawned a bunch of imitators and set the blueprint for the 80s. So massive in North America back in the day. Good to see some love from the UK for my favorite band! Greetings from Michigan!

These guys provided the soundtrack to my youth. Such an amazing discography. Very much enjoyed your ratings! For Unlawful is epic! Thanks for sharing! 🤟🤟

Very cool ranking. I love 5150 and OU812 more than most I think because I really got into music around that time. My top 5 are almost interchangeable: 1) VH1 2) 5150 3) 1984 4) OU812 5) VH2

Very interesting, here's my ranking 1- Van Halen I 2- 1984 3- Van Halen II 4- For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge 5- Fair Warning 6- Women And Children First 7- 5150 8- OU812 9- Balance (My favorite song on this album his the last one, Feelin') 10- A Different Kind Of Thruth 11- Diver Down 12- Van Halen III

Also agree...For Unlawful is a phenomenal album. That 1991 vinyl you have is very hard to come by in the states...nice find!!

I saw them in Toronto during their Diver Down tour & they were fantastic. I enjoyed listening to your commentary. My top 5 are in line with your favourites. Thanks.

excellent list

So many classics on these albums! Huge Van Halen fan here!

1. Van Halen (1978) 2. Fair Warning (1981) 3. Women and Children First (1980) 4. 1984 (1984) 5. Van Halen II (1979) 6. Diver Down (1982) 7. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991) 8. A Different Kind of Truth (2012) 9. 5150 (1986) 10. Balance (1995) 11. OU812 (1988) 12. Van Halen 3 (1998)

Great ranking! I agree the best Hagar album is ”For Unlawful….”. Best Roth album is tougher. Think I go for ”1984”, because two of my favourite tracks are ”Hot for teacher” and ”Panama”. Take care!🤘

Great vid and ranking. 1) Women and Children First 2) Van Halen 3) 1984 4) OU812 5) Fair Warning 6) Van Halen 2 7) Balance 8) Diver Down Not a fan of the rest

12 - Van Halen 3 11 - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge 10 - 0U812 9 - Balance 8 - A Different Kind Of Truth 7 - Diver Down 6 - Fair Warning 5 - 5150 4 - Women And Children First 3 - 1984 2 - Van Halen 2 1 - Van Halen (1978)

Van Halen were massive for me in my youth. These albums are heavily imprinted in my brain. Nowdays to get my V.H fix i listen to the " Best of Van Halen " comp as it has 3 studio tracks not on albums. plus Sammy Hagars self titled .produced by E.V.H ( also does some work on it). Love " Give To Live ". And the David Lee Roth album you are showing behind you in your video. Great ranking, i would probably rate 5150 higher myself if being honest. Thanks for the video.

I can't say I know a great deal of Van Halen's discography, tbh. I've always loved 'Jump', 'Panama' and 'Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love', but I've never been a fan of 'Hot For Teacher'. I think that's about all I know! I really do need to dig in more and you've given me some good tips on where to start! Merry Christmas, dude! 🎄🎁🎅🍻☃️🌲 Cheers! 🤘

Hi James!!! well done mate.... it's so cool to see your thought about Eddie and the band as they always seems to be more appealing to the US market than the Uk and even Europe.... Unfortunately we never got the chance to see them live back in the day or even with Sammy..... for same reason i have a soft spot for OU812, i think "Black and Blue" is a really good song, also heard or read somewhere that Diver Down wasn't meant to be an album, they released a single and it went so well that the record compamy demanded a full lengh Lp and that's how DD was born..... cheers and be well

Great video ranking. One of my favourite bands. We would be a little different in the rankings but I get your explanations 🤘5150 tops the Hagar era for me and the only time I got to see them live was on the VH3 tour with Gary. Merry Christmas mate

1. Fair Warning 2. 1984 3. VH2 4. Women and Children First 5. VH 6. Diver Down 7. A Different Kind of Truth 8. 5150 9. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge 10. Balance 11. OU812 12. III

Diver Dawn is fantastic album!!!!

The First I knew about Van Halen was when they opened for Black Sabbath at the Birmingham Odeon in 1979 . They blew me away. If they were responsible for the 80's Hair Metal Wave then they have a lot to answer for Lol. We could quibble about the rankings but that will always happen . Nice to see ya back. All the best.

Hard to argue with this ranking James, although I would put 5150 in the top 4. They are a band with really great deep cuts so they don't really have any weak albums. They had so much potential with Cherone but I feel they wasted it and at least should have given him another go. They seemed to get the synthesiser to really work for them, which made them a stand out and possibly why they have so may great albums.

1 - Van Halen 2 - 1984 3 - Van Halen II 4 - Diver Down 5 - Women and Children First 6 - Fair Warning 7 - A Different Kind of Truth 8 - 5150 9 - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge 10. Balance 11. OU812 12. Van Halen 3

Awesome Van Halen ranking, James!

Decent job with your ranking. The full bug is a jamming song! I put Fair Warning as number one.

I didn't know that about the guitar! I think I just missed the boat on these guys. I do love Hot For Teacher and a few other songs. Why Can't this be Love is one that really was so popular I even heard it as a kid. DLR is one of a kind, I've watched quite a few interviews with him. You definitely need to treat yourself to a new 1984 that sticker is ludicrous!

Another great ranking by another great band one of my first true favorites growing up ill compare my ranking to yours 12. VH3 11. OU812 10. Balance 9. Diver Down 8. Women and Children First 7. 5150 6. A Different Kind of Truth 5. Unlawful Carnal 4. VH1 3. VH2 2. 1984 1. Fair Warning

Very good list i must say, Van Halen is an epic band

Great rankings! I have VH3 at 12) ADKOT at 11, Fair Warning at 10, 0U812 at 9 (terrible production), Diver Down at 8 (Intruder is amazing intro to Oh Pretty Woman, WACF at 7 ( And the Cradle will rock was the first VH song I had ever heard and I was like “What the Heck is that? at the very beginning of the song, Balance at 6 ( this album has to include the Japanese extra song Crossing Over which is a phenomenal song. My fiancé was killed and the very next week this album dropped. Those songs helped me cope. VH II was 5, 1984 was 4, 5150 is 3 ( Love walks in is beautiful), For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is 2 ( this album was phenomenal! Dream is Over is the best song on the album imo), VH is Number 1 (this album saved rock n roll and started the 80’s hair band rock). This is a great list and my top 12 always changes minus the number 12 spot VH III. Love your podcast! New Subscriber!!!

Van Halen Fair Warning 1984 Van Halen 2 Women and Chidlren 1st For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Diver Down Balance A Different Kind of Truth 5150 OU812 Van Halen 3 I will say that the first 5 on my list are worlds ahead of the rest. The next 5 are great. I never listen to the last 2 because they are virtually unlistenable except for about 2 songs each. For Unlawful Carnal Knowlede is the most underrated VH album. Diver Down is the next most underrated. If Dave had stayed with Van Halen, they would be on level with Zepplin.

15:34 I just watched another video (by "The Tapes Archive") about the 1984 album, including the artwork: in the UK, the sticker was widely applied to censor the cigarettes. Fun video! #1 1984 #2 VH 1 and the rest depend on the day.

I was never really into Van Halen (nothing against them, just never got into them), so it's helpful to hear your thought om their output. Seems that the 'Van Halen III' situation is similar to 'The X Factor' and in particular 'Virtual XI' where Blaze got blamed for those albums not being great when itis actually the songwriting and production that IMO are the weak spots.

Is that a UK or US pressing of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge? I’ve got a first year pressing of OU812 but I’ve preordered the Hagar era box set which comes out October 6. Can’t wait to get the rest of the Van Halen catalog.

I love the David Lee Roth energy only because he is a fantastic showman. Sammy Hagar just dropped the energy level in the band. Too much ballad oriented.

Love Divver down

my van halen album ranked: 1 - van halen 2 - 1984 3 - 5150 4 - ou812 5 - balance 6 - for unlawful carnal knowledge 7 - diver down 8 - van halen 2 9 - women and children first 10 - fair warning

Although I have owned every VH album, I was never crazy about the mix of electric and acoustic drums on OU8 and 5150.

I would put 5150 and For Unlawful on top of that list.

Those top 3 are so good and my top 3. It’s like they were slightly not as good on women and children and fair warning and worse on diver down. Then back to peak form with 1984. I really like 5150 and that’s the only one there I would have higher on the list. The bottom few are certainly weak. Haha.

Worst 12. A Different Kind of Truth 11. VHIII 10. Diver Down (because it’s mostly covers) 9. Women and Children First 8. 1984 7. VHII 6. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge 5. VH 4. Balance 3. Fair Warning 2. OU812 1. 5150 Best (I know I’m a Hagar fan)

FULL BUG RULES ALL YA BIG GOOBER!!!

VH-DLR and VH-SH are really two different bands and really should be ranked separately. That being said, these 3 are the worst out of any singer, imo. 10. Diver Down 11. DKOT 12. VH3 After that, these are my preferences: VHDLR 1. VH1/1984 3. Fair Warning 4. VH2 5. WCF VHSH 1. 5150 2. Balance 3. FUCK 4. OU812

Although it's your video and yes you have a right to rank albums as you hear them. but in all fairness Diver down isn't number 11 it's not first place it's not 11nth place either? I understand you find it to be 11nth place!!! so you like there 90's better than their 80's some of their 80's? here are my rankings 12th place Van Halen -3 11. A different kind of truth 10 Balance 9. For unlawful carnal knowledge 8. ou812 7. 5150 6. Diver down 5 1984 4. Fair warning 3. Woman and children first 2. 2 1. debut 1

The only era I care about is the David Lee Roth era. The Hagar stuff is pure rubbish for me. 1. Fair Warning 2. Van Halen 3. 1984 4. Van Halen II 5. Women & Children First 6. Diver Down

My list: 12. VHIII 11. Women and Children First 10. OU812 9. Balance 8. VH (I know I’ll get hate for this placing lol) 7. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge 6. Diver Down 5. 5150 4. VHII 3. A Different Kind of Truth 2. Fair Warning 1. 1984

DIVER DOWN rules all ya big goof!!!

1. Van Halen (1978) 2. 1984 (1984) 3. 5150 (1986) 4. Women and Children First (1980) 5. Van Halen II (1979) 6. Fair Warning (1981) 7. Diver Down (1982) 8. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991) 9. Balance (1995) 10. OU812 (1988) 11. A Different Kind of Truth (2012) 12. Van Halen III (1998) *anyone who doesn’t have this garbage at the bottom is a moron lol

Fair Warning should be number 2 after the Debut album. The Guitar work on that album was Eddie's best work. Very raw and Hard. You missed the mark on that one Mate.

I will never understand the hate for OU812. I think it's MILES better than 5150

Van Hagar is not van Halen .

A"catchy chorus"is that a good thing?I don't think so..ha.