Van Halen - One Band, Two Singers, Millions of Fans
Steemit Rockers - here comes Edition Number Fifteen (15!) of my Rock Classics Series. This time we have another Band that was mainly successful in the 70ies / 80ies - my time of youth! Van Halen is from California, founded in 1972 - the early lineup included Eddie Van Halen (lead guitar), his brother Alex on drums, Mike Anthony playing bass and the face of the band - vocalist David Lee Roth. In 1984 they landed their first international No. 1 which is still played a lot on radio and TV: "JUMP" from their most successful album called "1984". This album has been sold in the US only 12 million times.
David Lee Roth left the band in 1985 and was replaced by Sammy Hagar - a fantastic voice but maybe not as charismatic as Roth before. With Sammy they have been similar successful achieving another four No. 1 albums in the US. In 1996 Hagar left and the band recruited Gary Cherone who left after 3 years already as the commercial success was gone.
There have always been stories and conflicting discussions around members leaving which where a result of a not so professional PR and communications set-up it seems. Maybe this was the strategy so the band was always in the media and talk of the music community. Later there have been re-unions with both - Sammie Hagar as well as David Lee Roth who is singing again with the band at the moment - I believe so at least! Being a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame it is difficult to add all of their success in one post - I love Wikipedia for Stats here:
Van Halen is one of only five rock bands that have had two studio albums sell more than 10 million copies in the U.S. Additionally, Van Halen charted the most number-one hits in the history of Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart and they are one of the world's best-selling bands of all time, having sold more than 80 million records.
Apart from being successful in seeking their albums the concerts of the mighty Van Halen have been a must-see. They are probably one of the all-time best performing live acts in Rock. Who had the chance to see them live? Unfortunately I have not visited one of their concerts, a pity but I show you some of their legend music below, live and studio work. I consider Eddie as one of the best guitarists in rock history. The last video is a full concert of the band in 1993 with Sammy Hagar as vocalist!
Sources: YouTube and Wikipedia