Take a look back at EddieVanHalen’s 15 best songs
when trying to come up with a song to soundtrack players introductions,"Right Now" probably would've gone down as sports-rock pump-up song of the '90s. Eddie's manic piano intro has all the tension and drama you could ask for, and when the song finally kicks in, it's as satisfying as a James Worthy buzzer-beater.
Also easily the most ambitious video of the Van Hagar era, though Sammy was so mad about the clip's explicit messaging distracting from his lyrics that he openly refused to cooperate during filming; it won Video of the Year at the '92 VMAs anyway.Van Halen's first top 20 hit, and arguably their first pure pop song. Recognizing that his jubilant main riff was enough to seal the deal, Eddie declined to include a solo on this one, instead filling out the bridge with some proto-"Panama" chugging and some graceful tap harmonics to keep the vibe floating. Still, his greatest contribution to the song's crossover prospects might've been lyrical: He convinced frontman David Lee Roth to change the chorus from the questionably provocative"dance, Lolita, dance" to the chorus still unavoidable on classic rock radio today.If not the biggest hit that Eddie Van Halen ever played on, maybe the most impactful: breaking down genre and color barriers on the radio and MTV, and helping turn into a blockbuster the likes of which the world has never seen before or since. Didn't need to compromise much to do it, either: The growling, snapping riff would have been at home on that year's , and the tapping frenzy that the solo destabilizes into musta sounded real interesting in between Chicago ballads and Irene Cara bangers on 1983 top 40 radio.In case it wasn't obvious from all the double-entendres, scorching riffs and general mic-licking lasciviousness, no, love was not a subject matter of particular priority for Van Halen: it took them until But what they had was so orgasmically rotten -- how else to describe that two-note croak at the end of EVH's octave-racing iconic intro riff? -- that the absence of rock's most traditional subject matter was never even noticeable; wondering when Van Halen was gonna start talking about love was about as necessary as hoping Lou Reed would pivot to songs about eating his vegetables.Even for a guitarist with as many iconic riffs in his arsenal as Eddie Van Halen had by the time of 1981's ,"Unchained" was a raising of the stakes: thicker, tougher and badder than he'd ever sounded, even whilst splitting the melodic difference between"Dance the Night Away" and"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love." If EVH and Angus Young of AC/DC were trading off baddest axeman status at the turn of the '80s like Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan passing each other on the all-time strikeout record, this was EVH fanning 18 and staring down Young as he stepped off the rubber -- while Roth hooted and hollered from the home dugout."The title reflects the band’s lifestyle," Chuck Klosterman wrote of"Unchained"
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