Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1 by Van Halen (CD, Oct-1996, Warner Bros.)

Track listing
1. Eruption
2. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
3. Runnin' With The Devil
4. Dance The Night Away
5. And The Cradle Will Rock...
6. Unchained
7. Jump
8. Panama
9. Why Can't This Be Love
10. Dreams
11. When It's Love
12. Poundcake
13. Right Now
14. Can't Stop Loving You
15. Humans Being
16. Can't Get That Stuff No More
17. Me Wise Magic


Details
Playing time: 72 min.
Distributor: WEA
Recording type: Studio
Recording mode: Stereo
SPAR Code: n/a


Album notes
Van Halen: David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Alex Van Halen.
Producers: Ted Templeman, Van Halen, Mick Jones, Donn Landee, Andy Johns, Bruce Fairbairn, Glenn Ballard.
Engineers: Donn Landee, Erwin Musper.
Digitally remastered by Chris Bellman (Bernie Grundman Studios, Los Angeles, California).
Almost evenly split between tracks that feature glammy showman David Lee Roth and those that feature earthy screecher Sammy Hagar, BEST OF VOLUME I seems designed to let this pioneering hard-rock band's fans compare and contrast between its two frontmen. As if to drive the exercise home, BEST OF features three tunes cut in '96--two of them with Roth, who had been estranged from the band since 1985, and one with Hagar ("Humans Being," originally released on the soundtrack to TWISTER).
Otherwise, BEST OF presents the hits in chronological order, beginning with the unadorned, aggressive sound of the early Roth material. Powered by guitarist Eddie Van Halen's hammer-on notes and orchestral pyrotechnics, and lightened up by Roth's used-car-salesman-on-a-bender persona, "Ain't Talkin 'Bout Love" and "Runnin' With The Devil" are as close to pure, perfect hard rock as anyone is ever likely to come. The early '80s found the band incorporating synthesizers (played by Eddie) and a pop sensibility, resulting in megahits like "Jump."
Things changed again when Hagar replaced Roth and took the band further from its roots, toward an expansive new sound with broader new arrangements, heard here in such pop hits as "Dreams" and "Right Now." Refusing to tip the balance toward either David Lee diehards or Sammy-come-latelys, BEST OF contains enough Van Halen milestones to keep anyone satisfied.

This is the album that pretty much sealed Sammy Hagar's fate. He wanted to do a new album and when this was released, he'd had enough and left. Most of the songs on this album are classics, especially the old Roth-era tunes. "Eruption" starts it off, the crazy guitar work of the young Eddie Van Halen that made him a guitar god. Still great after all these years. "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" is next, an excellent tune from their self-titled debut. "Runnin' With the Devil" follows, also from the first album. More mature than many of Van Halen's early songs. "Panama" is here too, a cool song that still gets a lot of radio play. There are also a few Hagar-era songs, four of them being love songs ("Why Can't This Be Love" "Dreams" "When It's Love" and "Can't Stop Lovin' You"). Also included is "Humans Being" the excellent song from the "Twister" soundtrack. Plus, there are two newly-recorded songs done with David Lee Roth that are...so-so. Nothing special, but nice to hear him again (he might be coming back for good. We'll see). There are many songs that could have been included that are better selections than those picked, but what are you gonna do? This is o.k. for fans that have most of their stuff, but much better for a first time listener. This album is a blast and will leave you wanting more!

Let me say this. I was excited as heck when I got this CD. Only problem was the case was jammed. I used a paring knife to pry it open. Well, the knife slipped and went straight into my leg. Blood was squirting up. I knew that wasn't normal so I called for an ambulance. I was bummed when it was an older box and didn't have a CD player. As they took me to the hospital with lights and siren on, the ambulance overhead. Then the engine caught fire. You should have seen how quick it burned when the oxygen tanks started leaking from the fire. So there we are, standing beside it waiting on a firetruck to put it out and another ambulance. Well, it took them forever to arrive. Once the fire was out, one of the fireman approached the paramedic and said he had an embarassing problem. They had the bleeding on my leg pretty well stopped by the time all this happened. The second ambulance arrived and the fireman got in first. I heard one of the paramedics so "Oh my God!". One came out and told me the fireman's privates had turned orange and it looked disturbingly serious. That peeked my attention so I start listening to the paramedics ask the fireman questions. "Have you been in contact with any hazardous materials?" "No" Did you somehow burn it in a fire today? Again, the answer was no. They asked this poor fireman a million questions about what he had been exposed to while being a firefighter. After they ran out of questions about what the fireman had been doing all day, and getting "no" to all of them, they asked "it soounds like you haven't been in contact with anything hazardous, and for that matter, haven't done much of anything at work this whole last week" The medics asked "what exactly do you do all day"? The fireman said "well, its a very slow firehouse, this ambulance fire is the first run we have had in months". So what exactly do you do to pass the time at the firehouse? The fireman replied, "We pretty much sit around the firehouse eating Cheetos and watching porn." I wasn't expecting that! I laughed so hard that it caused my leg wound to burst open and blood was squirting a good 5 feet in the air. They had to call for a helicopter ambulance to take me to a Level 1 Trauma center. On the plus side, the helicopter had a CD player! Nothing sounds better than the rotors chopping through the air with "Ain't Talkin Bout Love" thumping along with it.

I bought this cd because there was one song missing from my library of music and this CD had it. Either way Van Halen is a grea, if not one of the greatest, bands of all time. This cd is great. If you don't want to go out and buy all the Van Halen Cds then settle on this one. David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar kick ass. You will love this Cd.

If you love Van Halen this is your album. It really DOES have the best of their hits. It is a fabulous CD to workout to!!! Great tunes. Highly recommended.