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Coming after Dave Lee Roth’s acrimonious departure and heralding the arrival of their new singer Sammy Hagar, 1986’s 5150 was always going to be pivotal for Van Halen. It turned out to be more than that. The band had spent the late 70s and early 80s building up an irrepressible head of steam, but Roth’s egomaniacal behaviour on and off stage and guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s desire for respect alongside his fame were increasingly incompatible.
Hagar was not a familiar figure to Van Halen fans who did not know or care about his Montrose past or his solo hit singles, but his singing style – more straightforward than Roth – fitted in well, and 5150 gave them their first No.1 album, on the back of three hit singles: a couple of power ballads in Why Can’t This Be Love and Love Walks In, plus the inspiring, anthemic Dreams.
The production, by Foreigner’s Mick Jones, was tighter and more commercial than anything Ted Templeman had achieved on earlier albums, and left no room for the florid flights of fancy like Panama or Hot For Teacher that had characterised their previous album 1984.
So the risk had paid off, and Van Halen looked set to dominate the hard rock/pop scene for a decade or more, especially when 5150’s follow-up album OU812 also hit the top spot. But it turned out Eddie was allergic to singers in general, and the second time things went tits-up it set off a chain of events from which the band never recovered – although they still managed a couple more No.1 albums along the way
This five-disc reissue of 5150 is notable for not including anything new or previously unreleased – a dubious honour.
The first two discs bring you the remastered album on CD and vinyl. There’s a second CD of single remixes, B-sides, etc. The third CD lifts the audio from the band’s Live Without A Net 1986 video from New Haven, Connecticut, which does at least include half a dozen decent rarities: the band play a couple of Hagar solo songs (I Can’t Drive 55 and There’s Only One Way To Rock), Hagar sings a couple of Roth-era Van Halen songs (Panama and Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love) and together they maul a couple of covers (The Troggs’ Wild Thing and Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll). The fifth disc is a Blu-ray that includes the Live Without A Net video and a couple of forgettable promos.
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