Van Halen - Very Best (36 tracks) +Album Reviews

The Ultimate Van Halen....Almost!!!

Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 07/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Van Halen is not only back with its first concert tour in over six years but with a brand new 'best of' compilation entitled "The Best Of Both Worlds". This double-disc set is nearly packed to its limits covering the band's two classic eras (1978-1985 with singer David Lee Roth and 1986-1996 with Sammy Hagar). In addition to the remastered tracks, the set includes three brand new songs with the return of Sammy Hagar. "It's About Time", "Up For Breakfast" and "Learning To See" capture a revitalized Van Halen full of fresh new ideas and a style that harkens back to its classic release "5150" (Hagar's first album with Van Halen).

As for the previously released material, it is a more comprehensive overview of the band's hits than what appeared on the 1996 "Best Of Volume 1" compilation. Sure, many of the tracks that appeared on the previous compilation are duplicated here but in addition, there is the VH classics "Hot For Teacher", "Jamie's Cryin'", "Top Of The World", "Pretty Woman", "You Really Got Me" and "Runaround" (plus many others).

Like every "Best of" collection that passes our way, there's always a downside. In the case of Van Halen's "Best Of Both Worlds", there are a few. First, the three live tracks which close the compilation feel completely out of place with the rest of the tracks. Also, the live material (which is three Roth-era tunes sung by Hagar from the band's 1993 live release "Live, Right Here, Right Now") is already presented elsewhere on the compilation in their superior studio versions. Secondly, the band's 1981 "Fair Warning" album is represented soley by the track "Unchained". Adding the popular hits "So This Is Love" and "Mean Street" to the compilation (in place of the live material) would have made the track list even stronger. Thirdly, not only is there no material from "Van Halen III" (the band's ill-fated and only album with singer Gary Cherone), there is no mention of it anywhere in the liner notes or the discography. Like it or not, "Van Halen III" did happen and removing it from a career-spanning anthology isn't going to change it. If there was just one track to represent "VHIII" to include on this compilation, my personal choice would be "Without You". Forth, there is an abrupt cut-out at the end of "Finish What Ya Started" which could have been due to a CD-mastering oversight.

Apart from these minor drawbacks, "The Best Of Both Worlds" is a fine collection from this vetran band. It's great to have Eddie, Alex, Michael and Sammy back together again after being apart for so long. Here's hoping the guys will re-enter the studio to make an album of all-new material real soon. If the three new tracks on this CD are of any indication, I can hardly wait for a full album. Until then, this compilation as well as Van Halen's back catalog will do just fine for now.

God Bless Van Halen. Welcome Back Boys!!!"

A compilation to make both die hard and casual fans mad

J. M Tyler | 08/05/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Any casual fan probably bought Best of: Vol. 1 a few years ago only to find that it was missing several of the great tracks played on the radio. The die hards bought that album for the 2 new rushed Roth tracks that were decent but did nothing to add to the original Van Halen legacy.

Move ahead 8 years and here we have another greatest hits album...odd seeing as the band has only released one album in that 8 years and NONE of the tracks from that album are represented here. Seems odd, too, since Gary Cherone was supposedly EVH's "musical soulmate" without which he vowed to spend the rest of his days playing trombone. It's a slap in the face to Gary not to at least include "Without You" here.

So anyway, basically what you have here is a band who claims to have written volumes of music in the past 6 years only to release a new hits package with only 3 new tracks. So answer me this, if you're doing this for the casual fans why not release a single disc "Best of Volume 2" with the new Hagar tracks and the rest of the radio tracks you included here? If you're doing this for the die hard fans why insult them by making them buy 2 CDs full of songs they already have for 3 new Hagar tracks that (just like the Roth tracks on BOV1) are decent but do nothing to add to the Van Hagar legacy? If you've written so much music in the past 6 years, why not give us a new album?

And finally, why the live tracks? They're from a live album that true Hagar fans bought years ago. They feature Hagar on vocals, but they're Roth songs. Wouldn't Hagar fans want to hear Hagar singing Hagar songs? Wouldn't Roth fans want to hear Roth singing Roth songs? So why these tracks? Makes no sense. If you had room for 3 more songs why not give us one of the many radio songs you left off the CD, ie. Mean Street, Atomic Punk, Ice Cream Man, Somebody Get Me a Doctor, Top Jimmy, Drop Dead Legs, Summer Nights, 5150, Cabo Wabo, (Don't Tell Me) What Love Can Do, Amsterdam, etc?

To make a long story short, lately Van Halen seems to be a band that cares nothing about their fans. Indeed, this CD is packed full of great music, but it is also packed with a lot of bad blood."

So close, so close

kevin m antonio | rumford, ri United States | 07/21/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Boy, all you folks who bought 'The Best of Van Halen' must be steamed! 'Cause this renders that disc superflous.

Now my (minor) gripes....

1). No chronological order! I thought it was gonna be like ZZ Top's recent 2 disc best of, start at the beginning and go forward. A disc of Dave and then of Sammy woulda been great, but what the hey. I guess this is how VH wanted it...

BUT... it works against them. The sequencing really plays up how much better a songwriter, singer, and performer Dave was. Nothing against Sammy, but his songs fall into 3 categories 1)I'm horny 2)She's gonna give me everything tonite 3)Prom themes ("Dreams", "Right Now"). Whereas Dave wrote stuff like "Jamie's Crying", "And the Cradle Will Rock", "Jump". The man was versatile. Plus he provides us with one of the greatest moments in rock at the end of "Beautiful Girls". Mr. Stud gets shot down: "Hey what's your name?... Hey! Where ya going?!?" BUT, he laughs at himself and shrugs it off ("I love 'em! I need 'em!"). And how many hard rockin' front men are confident enough to pull off something like that?

Plus I think Dave really challenged the band with his songs; just listen to the diversity of the arrangements (especailly with something like "Ice Cream Man" or "Could This Be Magic". Yeah, neither one's on this set, but do you think Sammy could thunk them up?).

2). Three live tracks?!? Yuck. I'da put in "Ice Cream Man", "Could This Be Magic" and "Humans Being". But I guess this is Warner's way of making us still have to buy the individual albums... or download or something... Sammy's diatribe during "Panama" is just embarrassing.

But, all in all, I am very happy with this set. Has (almost) all the VH I want in one convenient package..

Oh, I sent an e-mail to Ice Magazine about the "Finish What Ya Started" glitch. The are investigating (the got a lotta e-mails about this!)."

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???

C. BONADUCE | N.Y. | 08/03/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"O.K. Let's be REAL honest. Yes,this is a decent compilation. Yes you get all the greats here. Yes,it's missing a few here and there (but they are not going to put everything on there right??Because then you won't go out and buy all the other albums if you haven't already)But they WILL get you to buy the same material over and over again as this double disc clearly displays.

TRUTH BE KNOWN...WE "DESERVED" A VAN HALEN: BEST OF VOLUME 2 !!!

Every fan ran out to by Volume 1 in '96 that featured the two new David Lee Roth tracks. It would have been pefect to have a Volume 2 all these years later with Sammy back at the helm to compliment that first edition. BUT NO!!!

You want a worth wild track list for a BEST OF VOLUME 2 mix (that is keeping the tradition of VOLUME 1) Here it is:

1. YOU REALLY GOT ME

2. JAMIES CRYIN'

3. FEEL YOUR LOVE TONIGHT (or even I'M THE ONE)

4. SOMEBODY GET ME A DOCTOR (if you prefer BEAUTIFUL GIRLS fine)

5. EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!

6. MEAN STREET

7. LITTLE GUITARS (or if you love the covers PRETTY WOMAN,or DANCING IN THE STREET)

8. HOT FOR TEACHER

9. I'LL WAIT

10. BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

11. LOVE WALKS IN

12. FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED (or FEELS SO GOOD or CABO WABO, but this was the hit)

13. RUNAROUND

14. TOP OF THE WORLD

15. NOT ENOUGH

16. WITHOUT YOU (should at least give Gary one track!)

17. IT'S ABOUT TIME (new track)

18. UP FOR BREAKFAST (new track)

19. LEARNING TO SEE (new track)

One final message to the real VH fans,borrow this double disc from somebody just for the 3 new tracks and make your own BEST OF VOLUME 2,which is what the real VH fams deserved. Not getting ripped off for all the same material again! You probably have all the original albums,therefor been putting money in the VH boys pockets for years. ITS' ABOUT TIME you didn't!

"

Big egos and horrible sequencing ruin this VH comp; good tra

Mike London | Oxford, UK | 10/04/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, while showcasing some undeniably powerful music, becomes, in the end, a mean spirited, classless greatest hits collection, meant at elevating Hagar over Roth every chance it gets. This anthology leaves the fans little doubt that the 1996 debacle of the Hagar firing/resignation (depending on who tells the story) and rehiring of Roth (and then immediate firing) rests solely on the head of Eddie Van Halen.

There's always fierce debate over two incarnations of Van Halen. Personally, I do not align myself exclusively with either camp, as I am a fan of the band's music made with both frontmen, though I do see the advantages and disadvantages of each.

When Roth fronted them from their commercial breakout in 1978 to the Van Roth's demise in 1985, Van Halen was known for wildly inventive guitar from Eddie, over-the-top vocals and theatrics from Roth, and killer live shows. Roth was the prototypical rock frontman: a larger than life caricature who embodied all the fratboy tendencies of the party-hearty rock and roll lifestyle. The genius of David Lee Roth as the prototypical rock and roll front man is his larger-than-life personae, his gonzo rock antics, and his wild, crazy partycentric lifestyle. Much of the appeal of Van Halen was this larger-than-life frontman.

Roth decided to pursue his own (aptly insubstantial) solo career, and Van Halen brought in Sammy Hagar, frontman to the heavy metal outfit Montrose. When Hagar replaced Roth, there was, naturally, no way for him to replace Roth as the front man without an image modification for the band. While Roth was almost a caricature of himself, a party-hearty animal, Sammy Hagar brought a much more down to earth approach to the whole rock front-man scene.

While Van Hagar churned out the slick guitar work the band was known for, they became a much more smooth adult pop sounding band. The Van Hagar years certainly had as many hits as Roth, Hagar always found himself living in the shadow of his predecessor. Sammy Hagar was much more of an everyday kind of guy than Roth, and he simply didn't have the larger than life persona that made Roth so appealing to the band's fanbase. He was the meat and potatoes front man while Roth was the caviar on a yacht out in the Carribean front man. Each has their strengths.

After the brief marriage and sudden divorce with Gary Cherone as Van Halen's frontman (a move that would cost the band their record contract, alienating the large majority of their fanbase; tellingly enough, nothing from Van Halen III is present here - the best of both worlds indeed), Van Halen lapsed into a musical silence that as of this writing still goes unbroken (save for the obligatory three new tracks presented here). Everyone wanted a reunion, but they wanted Roth. Eddie would have none of that. Instead, he brought Sammy back into the fold for three new songs and a reunion tour.

This compilation is a result of that tour. After the band never released the "Vol II" continuation of the 1996 retrospective "Greatest Hits," many fans wondered if we'd ever get a good official sampler of Van Halen. So far, with this addition to the canon, the fans still don't have one.

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, while it certainly has a well-chosen track selection, plays as just a dirty way for Eddie and the boys to downplay Roth at everystep of the way. Roth gained the band much of their initial popularity, so there's no way even Eddie can ignore Roth's contributions. But BOTH WORLDS is a disaster, because it has this stuttering, start-start rhythm as Sammy and Roth continually juxtapose each other, and the album never really gains a flow. Had it been arranged chronologically, with Dave and Sammy having their own disc, this would be the definitive sampler of Van Halen. This is the perfect example of how track sequencing can ruin albums and compilations, as this comp has all the biggest VH songs from both frontmen.

As it stands now, however, BEST OF BOTH WORLDS just becomes a petty swipe at David Lee Roth, all at the expense of the fans. There are no pictures of him in the liner notes (save the album covers), barely a mention of him, and continual, over the top praising and adulation of Sammy Hagar. Then, to make matters even more insulting, they close out the album with Hagar singing three Roth tunes live.

In the end, BEST OF BOTH WORLDS have all the right things going for it to be a great Van Halen retrospective, featuring the strengths of both incarnations of the band. But just like the band's career itself, this compilation becomes just another casualty in the midst of ongoing ego wars. And who really loses? The fans, that's who.

"

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