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Van Halen is a hard rock band formed in Template:City-state in 1972. They enjoyed success from the release of their self titled debut album in 1978. As of 2007 Van Halen has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide and have had the most number one hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. During the 1980s they also had more Billboard Hot 100 hits than any other hard rock or heavy metal band. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Van Halen is the 19th best selling band/artist of all time with sales of over 56 million albums in the USA and is one of five rock bands that have had two albums sell more than 10 million copies in the USA.

In addition to being recognized for success, the band is known for the drama surrounding the exits of former members. The (multiple) exits of singers David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar were surrounded in controversy and mass press coverage with various contrasting press statements between them and the band. The band changed style dramatically following the departure of Roth, with his solo career being more similar to the band's original work than Van Halen's own songs with later singers. More recently, Michael Anthony was kicked out of the band for controversial reasons. Following their 2004 concert tour the band was on a hiatus from the public until September 2006, when new bassist Wolfgang Van Halen's place was confirmed and Roth-reunion rumors began to re-surface coinciding with the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on March 12, 2007. After years of speculation, Van Halen began a tour with Roth in late 2007 across North America, which has been extended into 2008. An album is proposed to follow. Along with this, a live tour DVD was announced at their May 13, 2008 concert at the Izod Center that would contain recordings from several performances on their current tour.

THIS BAND SUX!

Band members

Current members

• David Lee Roth – lead & backing vocals (1974–1985, 1996, 2007–present)
• Eddie Van Halen – lead & rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1972–present)
• Wolfgang Van Halen – bass guitar, backing vocals (2006–present)
• Alex Van Halen – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1972–present)

Former members

• Michael Anthony – bass guitar, backing vocals (1974–2002, 2004–2005)
• Sammy Hagar – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (1985–1996, 2003–2005)
• Gary Cherone – lead vocals (1997–1999)
• Mitch Malloy - lead vocals (1996 - see above, band on public hiatus during brief tenure)
• Mark Stone – bass guitar, backing vocals (1972–1974 - only a member when the band still used the name Mammoth)

Discography

• Van Halen (1978)
• Van Halen II (1979)
• Women and Children First (1980)
• Fair Warning (1981)
• Diver Down (1982)
• 1984 (1983)
• 5150 (1986)
• OU812 (1988)
• For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
• Live: Right Here, Right Now (1993)
• Balance (1995)
• Best of Volume I (1996)
• Van Halen III (1998)
• The Best of Both Worlds (2004)

Awards and Nominations

Legacy

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The Van Halen album introduced the guitar world to the band's signature "Brown sound," a nickname given to the result of Eddie's guitar/amp combination and technique. With Templeman's production, this tone was carefully defined.

Contract riders

Van Halen pioneered the modern rock music tour with their use of the concert technical contract rider. They were the first band to use contract riders to specify a "wish list", a practice now used throughout the music industry. As one of the first major bands with a travelling stage show, Van Halen had extensive requirements including power availability and stage construction details. The band's demands were not limited to technical issues; their now-infamous rider specified that a bowl of M&M candies, with all of the brown M&Ms removed, was to be placed in their dressing room. According to David Lee Roth, this was listed in the technical portion of the contract, not because the band felt they wanted to make random demands of the venue, but because of legitimate safety concerns. On an early tour, a member of Van Halen's road crew was nearly killed by shoddy workmanship on the part of a local venue, and which ended up causing approximately $85,000 in equipment damage. Because of this incident, the band needed to come up with a creative idea as a means of checking whether the venue was properly honoring all of the contract. Subsequently, if the bowl was missing, or if there were brown M&M's present, they had reason to suspect legitimate technical and safety concerns that were spelled out in the contract were also being ignored or were done improperly, and the band would be within their rights to have the requests spelled out in the contract reinspected prior to going on-stage.

Material covered by other artists

Influential American punk trio The Minutemen recorded a 40-second version of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" for their landmark double album Double Nickels on the Dime, though the arrangement was changed significantly to fit the time. Rapper Tone Loc used uncredited samples from "Jamie's Cryin'" on his hit "Wild Thing," but when asked about it later Alex Van Halen said "It was 1987, who knew?". In 1989, 2 Live Crew sampled the riff of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" for their single "The Fuck Shop". The dance music act Apollo 440 sampled the guitar intro from "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" for their 1997 single "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub". Van Halen's arrangement of the song "You Really Got Me" (performed by other artists) was featured in the video game Guitar Hero II. Panama was also featured in the soundtrack to the video game, "Gran Turismo 4."

In 2002, Canadian ambient musician Tim Hecker released My Love Is Rotten to the Core, a concept album composed of spliced and sampled elements of Van Halen songs and interviews, constructed into a mini-narrative of the band's dissolution and breakup over Hecker's trademark drone-y ambient noise.

References

1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Van Halen Biography". allmusic. Retrieved 2008-11-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
2. Press Release Announcing 2004 Van Halen Concert Tour
3. "2005 statistics from the RIAA".
4. "2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Profile".
5. "Van Halen, with Roth, to begin reunion tour". Retrieved 2007-08-13.
6. From "Crazy from the Heat" - David Lee Roth's autobiography
7. "Van Halen: The David Lee Roth Years". Starling.rinet.ru. Retrieved 2008-11-23.

Aztec Camera covered Jump on the flipside of one of their singles.

See also

• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart

External links

• Van-Halen.com - The official Van Halen website
• VHLinks.com
• Van Halen NewsDesk
• Sammy Hagar Discography
• Van Halen discography at Discogs
• Van Halen videos from VH1Classic.com

Template:2007 Rock Hall Inductees

• Van Halen
• Hard rock musical groups
• California heavy metal musical groups
• American rock music groups
• Los Angeles musical groups
• Musical groups from California
• Grammy Award winners
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
• Musical groups established in 1972
• 1970s music groups
• 1980s music groups
• 1990s music groups
• 2000s music groups