Van Halen - Singles poll

Black Sabbath - Sabotage poll
666 is - Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast poll
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny poll
Motörhead - No Sleep 'til Hammersmith poll
Metallica - Ride the Lightning poll

This will close out the Ozzy tribute block. Normally this is an albums poll but all the above, including VH, have already been done. So instead closing out with a singles poll. I couldn't make the connecting to Black Sabbath at first but they did open for them and apparently they did covers when they were starting out. I know the general VH thread just got bumped but this poll was already planned.

lot of worthy candidates but i had to go with "Panama"

Voted Runnin w the Devil if only because of where I was (school bus) and how old I was (12?) when I first heard it. With no preparation beyond Journey and Styx it felt pretty damn weighty. But also fun and funny and messy at the same time. A gateway drug for sure.

Not a fan, but I didn’t turn off “Jump” when it came on in the car today, so that.

It's like an old twitter joke, Name a more iconic Van Halen single than "Jump"... I'll wait

For me I think it's "Dance the Night Away" (though "Unchained" is the rockingest)

The cuts from the first album all blew my mind when I first really paid attention to them, but I have an incredible affection for "Dance the Night Away." Somewhere between the guitar tone and the angelic backing vocals, it transcends the contents of the lyrics, and the band's entire steez, to become a hymn to the Platonic ideal of dancing the night away, and all the feelings of youthful possibility that go along with it.

It's their "Dancing Queen"

Favs from the Roth era:

Runnin' With the Deviol
Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love
Dance the Night Away
Unchained
Jump
Panama

From the Hagar era:

Why Can't This Be Love
When It's Love
Right Now

Unchained takes it, although I stand by my original mishearing of "blue-eyed murder in a sci-fi dress"

HAVE YOU SEEN JUNIOR'S GRADES??

This list seems inaccurate to me - there's no way songs as dark and fucked-up as "Mean Street" and "So This Is Love?" were singles.

I can't vote for anything off the debut because it's such a brilliant, perfect album that I always listen to it front to back. (It helps that it's only about 35 minutes long - and still the longest Roth-era album at that!)

Won't vote for a Van Hagar song; never liked those records.

Might vote for "I'll Wait," which definitely was a single and is such a weird outlier in their catalog - a straight New Wave pop song with a dark, obsessive lyric.

I might vote for "I'll Wait" too. You can hear the Michael McDonald co-write.

"Dance the Night Away" is perfect.

Definitely remember "Mean Street" being played a ton on AOR radio when Fair Warning came out but I don't think it was a US single

xxp they were both singles!

OK "Mean Street" only in Italy and Spain, but "So This Is Love" was a US single

https://www.discogs.com/master/624643-Van-Halen-So-This-Is-Love

shockingly, "Unchained" was not a US single either

shockingly, "Unchained" was not a US single either

That is shocking, because that's one of the VH songs I remember hearing on NY rock radio the most as a teenager.

"So This Is Love" was the one single and it didn't chart at all (in Cashbox or Billboard)

Voted "Dance the Night Away" without even looking at the other options.

One of the most joyous songs of all time. I have told my wife that I want it played at my funeral. Maybe it's a joke; maybe not.

the only VH songs I remember growing up are the "You Really Got Me" and "Pretty Woman" covers, thought of them as shitty biker music for many years until "Hot For Teacher" came on and was like...holy shit???

so for me it's either that, or "Running With the Devil", or "Unchained", with half a dozen honorable mentions....anyone gonna vote "Little Guitars"???

voted "Panama" which sort of defines VH for me, but there are so many I could have gone for

"Tattoo"

^really love this one off of A Different Kind of Truth

The last dozen on the list ring no bells whatsoever

Dance the Night Away or Dancing in the Street or The Seventh Seal

Fav things about Dance the Night Away: the calypso/samba breakdown, ....Ooooh BAby baby, the BACKING VOCALS

Fav things about Dancing in the Street: the staccato Run Like Hell pulse that circles the rim of the track, like I mentioned in the other thread

Fav things about The Seventh Seal: EVH's enormous but foggy, orange guitar tone, being hazy and droney without quite becoming shoegaze, more like 'In the Evening', plus the chanting monk bollocks, the unstable bass that keeps threatening to fall over, the incredible drum sound (see Balance passim)

Okay probably the latter needs my love the most

"Tattoo"

^really love this one off of A Different Kind of Truth

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, October 9, 2025 12:06 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Relistening for the first time in 10+ years. A lot better than I remember it. Had totally forgotten about the union tattoo verse at the end. Was mostly focused on the mousewives and momshells.

lol dogg u know when DLR wrote that mousewife/momshell line he was like *chefs kiss*

He didn't even write it! He jacked it from the working title of a book by Janice Min.

The title says it all: From Mousewife to Momshell: The Rules and Celebrity Secrets for Being a Thinner, Younger and Sexier Mom. Due for release early next year, it will stick to the tried and true formula the former Us Weekly editor used in nearly doubling circulation after chronicling the post-baby weight losses of actresses Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry and Gwyneth Paltrow

It was released in September 2012 as How to Look Hot in a Minivan: A Real Woman's Guide to Losing Weight, Looking Great, and Dressing Chic in the Age of the Celebrity Mom, seven months after the Van Halen album. Not sure if the band's use of the title led to it being changed.

haha even better

DLR is such a Weird Guy

I’ll always think of “Running with the Devil’ as the song that introduces the freaks under the bleachers in Freaks and Geeks.

rip ryno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5_ZwCZsGyw

I have been waking up each day singing "Why Can't This Be Love" but I can't see myself voting for a Sammy song here.

frogbs, I could easily switch my vote to Little Guitars. SENORITAAAAAA!! how did he make that chiming lick? some kind of delay?

Happy birthday, Dave!

frogbs, I could easily switch my vote to Little Guitars. SENORITAAAAAA!! how did he make that chiming lick? some kind of delay?

― Psychocandy Apple Grey (Pyschocandles), Friday, October 10, 2025 1:17 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This guy demonstrates it pretty well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukUqFNtR3LQ

"Panama"'s my favourite video, also a great single, but "Dance the Night Away."

If for novelty reasons we did a Hagar-only poll, I'd do "Finish What Ya Started." But, yeah, "Panama" is the desert-island one.

Been listening to songs on random. This has changed my vote from "Jump." Forgot why they never really clicked for me,"Hot for Teachers" is a prime example as its cheesy. But they do have some great songs. The Sammy Hagar era is a trip, is this really the same band? First heard "Dreams" and this last one "Love Walks In" I thought my service lost my way and was playing something else. Still, this is fun and might continue.

For me I think it's "Dance the Night Away" (though "Unchained" is the rockingest)

yeah in this stage the singles are really so distinct. one of those is probably my pick

i fucking love 'i'll wait' too (honestly the guitar solo (does it count as ernie-ing?) followed by the drum fill crop up a lot when i'm in the shower)

but this is easily AIN'T TALKIN' 'BOUT LOVE

The debut hit so hard - going with Running With The Devil.

xp i mean the fucking minutemen covered it

Despite the baconing of "Panama" i cannot deny it. Only beat out "Running with the Devil" by a hair tho

Minutemen's "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" would be a tough decision tho

Ain't Talkin' bout Love is my fav single off the first LP but because I'm so used to what Apollo 440 did it always feels like it's playing too slowly.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted for dancing in the end:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODTVPvjuRbo

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

smh

In Alex's book he points out their mother making them practice piano constantly, and the irony (and gratitude to Mom) that the two most commercially successful VH songs (Jump and Right Now) are both keyboard tunes.

thats funny because Jump is like the least complicated melody ever, it took me all of 30 seconds to figure out the chords and I usually suck at that

yep, and before the band even started Eddie was regularly winning classical piano competitions, even without reading sheet music.

Speaking of Right Now, theres a funny moment on the Dallas 1991 video (included in the Carnal Knowledge box set) where Sammy unsuccessfully tries to lead the crowd into a "Right Now" chant in the middle of Panama- the only DLR era song they play during the show. Seriously though, I love that video, I love bearded, cuddly Eddie and where the F.U.C.K. was Sammy buying his clothes?

anyway one thing that comes to mind looking at all these song titles is how ridiculously catchy and memorable some of these songs are to the point where they just pop into your head constantly from day to day. at parent-teacher night each room was a South American country so I had "Panama" in my head all day. my wife has a friend named Jamie and every time she talks about her my brain goes "ohhhh whoaaa whoaaa Jamie's cryin". when someone asks me to make a change at work (as in a change request) I think "nothin' stays the same!". the phrase "right now" does it too which is odd because it sounds so different to the Roth era VH. there are other examples but you get the point. the only other band I can think of that's set up so many triggers in my brain is maybe XTC?

Panama and Jump wouldn't even be in my top 5, maybe due to overexposure but what Roth-era Van Halen single isn't overexposed?

Most of the ones from 80-82, I'd say.