5150 (album)
Encyclopedia
5150 is the seventh studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by American hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 band Van Halen
Van Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...

, released in 1986 through Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

. The album was the first to be recorded with new lead singer Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....

 who replaced David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....

.

It was named after Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

's home studio, 5150
5150 Studios
5150 Studios is Eddie Van Halen's home studio in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The studio was built so that Eddie Van Halen could have more control over the recording process than he had in the past. Every Van Halen album from 1984 onwards was recorded at 5150...

, which is a California police term for a mentally disturbed person (a reference to Section 5150 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code
5150 (Involuntary psychiatric hold)
Section 5150 is a section of the California Welfare and Institutions Code which allows a qualified officer or clinician to involuntarily confine a person deemed to have a mental disorder that makes them a danger to him or her self, and/or others and/or gravely disabled...

). The 5150 name has been used several times by Van Halen. It is the name of a custom Frankenstein-striped Kramer Pacer
Kramer Pacer
The Kramer Pacer is a guitar series made by Kramer Guitars from the beginning of the Kramer wooden neck period to the company’s bankruptcy in 1990. -The types:...

 Special electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 used by Eddie Van Halen throughout the '80s, and the model name of a signature guitar amplifier endorsed by Eddie for his own EVH brand. The album hit number 1 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 chart, surpassing the band's previous album, 1984
1984 (Van Halen album)
1984 is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen. One of the band's more popular albums , 1984 is to date the final album featuring singer David Lee Roth before he left the band in the spring of the following year.-Background and recording:Eddie Van Halen,...

, which had peaked at number 2 as Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

's Thriller
Thriller (album)
Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall...

 album, on which Eddie made a guest appearance, dominated the charts.

Overview

Before the album was released, Van Halen had considerable difficulty finding a replacement for the popular David Lee Roth. To make matters worse, Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

 advised them to discontinue the Van Halen name; in the beginning of 1986, Eddie and Alex formally refused. The trio even considered a series of temporary singers to replace him, including Patty Smyth
Patty Smyth
Patty Smyth is an American rock and roll musician. She first enjoyed mainstream success in 1982 as lead singer of the band Scandal and later scored a solo #2 hit with her song "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough"...

 and Jimmy Barnes
Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon Swan , better known as Jimmy Barnes, is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer-songwriter. His father Jim Swan was a prizefighter and his older brother John Swan is also a rock singer. It was actually John who had encouraged and taught Jim how to sing as he wasn't really interested at...

. However in July 1985, Eddie Van Halen met former Montrose
Montrose (band)
Montrose was a California-based hard rock band. The band originally featured Ronnie Montrose on guitar and future solo artist and former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar...

 singer Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....

 while getting a mechanic to work on his Lamborghini. The pair hit it off and the new singer and band immediately began work on new songs.

Van Halen went to work on the album in November 1985; it would be finished in February 1986, just one month before its release.

The album was notable for a number of love songs and ballads, which were not a feature of the straightforward rock stylings of the Roth-fronted era of the band. Many who had heard the previous incarnation of Van Halen called the new iteration "Van Hagar" either derisively or affectionately—a nickname widespread enough that, as Hagar points out in his book, Warner Bros. asked them to consider re-naming the band as such. Further increasing criticism was the loss of Ted Templeman
Ted Templeman
Ted Templeman is an American record producer.-Career:He began his career in the mid 1960s in the Santa Cruz area as a drummer in a band called The Tikis. At the suggestion of Lenny Waronker, the group decided to change their name. Harpers Bizarre was born in 1966, with Templeman switching to...

, who, having produced every previous Van Halen album, left in order to produce David Lee Roth's solo LP debut, Eat 'Em and Smile. Templeman would return to produce Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is the ninth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1991 through Warner Bros. Records. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and maintained the position for three weeks...

 album a few years later. Donn Landee took over producer duties for 5150 after having served as an engineer on the previous albums. However, many noticed that the production on this album was markedly different from their earlier albums with Templeman. Eddie's guitar, which previously sat high in the mix and frequently pushed to the left channel (to simulate a "live" sound"), now sat equal in the mix and its overall sound had changed. This may have been his doing, as he was not a fan of the "live mix" that Templeman created with the Roth band.

Foreigner
Foreigner (band)
Foreigner is a British-American rock band, originally formed in 1976 by veteran English musicians Mick Jones and ex-King Crimson member Ian McDonald along with American vocalist Lou Gramm...

 guitarist Mick Jones
Mick Jones (Foreigner)
Michael Leslie "Mick" Jones is an English guitarist, songwriter, and record producer best known as the founding member of the rock band Foreigner.-Life and career:...

 was also brought in as a producer, after Warner Bros. denied the band full creative latitude. According to Jones, the Van Halen brothers were "going through a particularly charged emotional relationship at the time, and there were some crazy situations that went on there." Jones feels that his biggest contribution to the album was working with Hagar on his dynamic vocal performances.

To further introduce the new era for the band, a new Van Halen logo was introduced on the cover of the album. The new icon retained the VH of the original logo, but now it had curved, rather than straight, "wings".

Despite the controversy associated with replacing a legendary frontman, the album itself was the first album by the band to hit number 1 in sales. Although each prior Van Halen album had gone platinum, the band had not managed previously to top the album sales chart. The 1984
1984 (Van Halen album)
1984 is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen. One of the band's more popular albums , 1984 is to date the final album featuring singer David Lee Roth before he left the band in the spring of the following year.-Background and recording:Eddie Van Halen,...

 album certainly had the sales and momentum to do so but had the unfortunate timing of being released when Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

's Thriller
Thriller (album)
Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall...

 album, the best-selling album of all time, was at its commercial peak. The album was also Hagar's first number 1 album, as stated by Hagar on the "Live Without a Net" concert video.

A live video was created during the tour for this album, which was released as Van Halen - Live Without a Net
Van Halen - Live Without a Net
Live Without a Net is a live concert video of Van Halen recorded in New Haven, Connecticut in 1986, and released the following year. It was of their performance on August 27, 1986 at New Haven's Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The 90-minute release removed a few songs from the full performance...

, which is today available on DVD. The tour itself was a significant change from previous tours. Where Van Halen had previously had years of material to work with, even on tour supporting the first album, Sammy Hagar was uncomfortable performing a number of Van Halen's Roth-penned hits. Therefore, almost all of the band's back catalog was dropped from the setlists. Instead, the band's live shows consisted almost the entire 5150 tracklist, a few Sammy Hagar solo hits ("I Can't Drive 55
I Can't Drive 55
"I Can't Drive 55" was the lead single and first track from Sammy Hagar's eighth studio album VOA in 1984. Perpetuated by a very successful music video, it became a concert staple that continued throughout Sammy's tours as a member of Van Halen....

", and "There's Only One Way to Rock") and assorted covers (such as Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love
Addicted to Love (song)
Tina Turner has made "Addicted to Love" a regular feature of her live shows since 1986, although her version did not make it onto the market until two years later....

" and Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

's "Rock and Roll
Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin song)
"Rock and Roll" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, which was first released as the second track from the band's fourth album in 1971, with a guest appearance by The Rolling Stones pianist Ian Stewart.-Overview:...

"). The only Roth-era hits commonly performed were "Jump" (the band's lone number 1 Billboard Hot 100 single), "Panama" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", although "You Really Got Me", originally by the Kinks and the bands first single in the Roth era, was also done. However, unlike Roth, Hagar was a technically proficient lead guitarist and this allowed Eddie to display his talents on keyboards live while Sammy Hagar played the guitar parts, as seen in the "LWAN" video during "Why Can't This Be Love" and "Love Walks In."

The opening song "Good Enough" can be heard in the movie Spaceballs
Spaceballs
Spaceballs is a 1987 American science fiction comedy parody film co-written by, directed by, Mel Brooks and starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, Mel Brooks & Rick Moranis. It also features, Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, and the voice of Joan Rivers. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on...

.

Reception

Reviews for 5150 were initially mixed. The Village Voices Robert Christgau rated the album a C+, which signifies "a not disreputable performance, most likely a failed experiment or a pleasant piece of hackwork." He wondered how "the guitar mavens who thought Eddie equalled Van Halen are going to like his fireworks displays and balls-to-the-wall hooks now that video star David Lee Roth has given way to one of the biggest schmucks in the known biz." He also stated that "no musician with something to say could stomach responding to Sammy Hagar's call".

Furthermore, Tim Holmes, a Rolling Stone reviewer, rated the album three out of five stars. He noted that "when it was announced that Van Halen had completed its talent search and the new voice was Sammy "I Can't Hack 55" Hagar, the response — even among hardened DLR detractors — tended more toward a bewildered "Huh? Montrose? What?" than resounding hosannas, huzzahs and what-a-good-idea's." Despite this, he stated that "part of Eddie Van Halen's cheeky genius [...] lies in his ability to think in terms of both complex orchestration and rock banalities". He also said that "Eddie can still split the atom with his axe, and he knows it. It's a Van Halen world with or without David Lee Roth, and 5150 shoots off all the bombastic fireworks of a band at the peak of its powers." He concluded that "ultimately, it is Eddie Van Halen's uncanny and intuitive ability to orchestrate these contradictions that gives the Van Halen machinery its velocity and amplitude, the qualities that blast the roof off the garage. There's plenty of hot party action down in rockland, but Eddie's band is the one with the chops — not just notes and chords and string-bashing Sturm und Drang, but the filigree detail that makes a simple-minded riff a symphony. [...] On 5150, Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar speak each other's language."

A retrospective review from Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine was fairly positive. Erlewine noted that "Eddie Van Halen wanted respect to go along with his gargantuan fame, and Roth wasn't willing to play. Bizarrely enough, Sammy Hagar – the former Montrose lead singer who had carved out a successful solo career – was ready to play, possibly because the Red Rocker was never afraid of being earnest, nor was he afraid of synthesizers, for that matter." He stated that "where Diamond Dave would have strutted through the song with his tongue firmly in cheek, Hagar plays it right down the middle, never winking, never joking. Even when he takes a stab at humor on the closing "Inside" -- joshing around about why the guys chose him as a replacement -- it never feels funny, probably because, unlike Dave, he's not a born comedian." He concluded that "it worked because they had the songs and the desire to party, so those good intentions and slow tunes don't slow the album down; they give it variety and help make the album a pretty impressive opening act for Van Halen Mach II."

Track listing

All songs written by Sammy Hagar, Edward and Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony.
  1. "Good Enough"  – 4:04
  2. "Why Can't This Be Love
    Why Can't This Be Love
    "Why Can't This Be Love" is a song by Van Halen, off the album 5150, the band's first with lead singer Sammy Hagar, who had replaced founding member David Lee Roth in late 1985...

    "  – 3:47
  3. "Get Up"  – 4:37
  4. "Dreams
    Dreams (Van Halen song)
    "Dreams" is a song by Van Halen released in 1986 from the album 5150. It was the second single from that album, and it reached #22 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart that year...

    "  – 4:54
  5. "Summer Nights"  – 5:06
  6. "Best of Both Worlds"  – 4:48
  7. "Love Walks In
    Love Walks In
    "Love Walks In" is a rock song written by the group Van Halen for their 1986 album 5150. It is one of the five singles issued for the album. The song starts with Eddie Van Halen playing a slow synth and kicks into the song. The song starts in the key of C and for the verse moves into what sounds...

    "  – 5:11
  8. ""5150""  – 5:44
  9. "Inside"  – 5:02

Personnel

  • Sammy Hagar
    Sammy Hagar
    Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....

     – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...

  • Eddie Van Halen
    Eddie Van Halen
    Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

     – lead guitar
    Lead guitar
    Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

    , acoustic guitar
    Acoustic guitar
    An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

    , keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

    , backing vocals
  • Michael Anthony – bass guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

    , backing vocals
  • Alex Van Halen
    Alex Van Halen
    Alexander Arthur "Alex" Van Halen is a Dutch-born American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. Originally, his brother Eddie had taken lessons for drums, while Alex practiced guitar...

     – drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

    , percussion
    Percussion instrument
    A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...


Production

  • Producers: Mick Jones
    Mick Jones (Foreigner)
    Michael Leslie "Mick" Jones is an English guitarist, songwriter, and record producer best known as the founding member of the rock band Foreigner.-Life and career:...

    , Donn Landee, Eddie and Alex Van Halen
  • Engineers: Ken Deane, Donn Landee
  • Mastering: Bobby Hata
  • Art direction: Jeri McManus, Van Halen
  • Photography: Aaron Rapoport
  • Illustration: Dan Chapman

Certifications

Album

Billboard (North America)
Year Chart Position
1986 Billboard 200 1

Singles

  • Billboard (United States)
    Year Single Chart Position
    1986 "Best of Both Worlds" Album Rock Tracks 12
    "Dreams
    Dreams (Van Halen song)
    "Dreams" is a song by Van Halen released in 1986 from the album 5150. It was the second single from that album, and it reached #22 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart that year...

    "
    Album Rock Tracks 6
    Billboard Hot 100 22
    "Love Walks In
    Love Walks In
    "Love Walks In" is a rock song written by the group Van Halen for their 1986 album 5150. It is one of the five singles issued for the album. The song starts with Eddie Van Halen playing a slow synth and kicks into the song. The song starts in the key of C and for the verse moves into what sounds...

    "
    Album Rock Tracks 4
    Billboard Hot 100 22
    "Summer Nights" Album Rock Tracks 33
    "Why Can't This Be Love?" Album Rock Tracks 1
    Billboard Hot 100 3
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK