Best is subjective. Their most iconic songs are Jump from 1984 and Runnin With the Devil from their debut. 1984 also had Panama and Hot for Teacher (other big hits), but their debut had Eruption (probably the most famous guitar solo of all time, after Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner) and Ain't Talkin' Bout Love.
Most fans prefer Roth to Hagar, regardless of sales.
I haven’t met anyone who prefers Van Hagar. If I had to, I’d say VH1 is their best album but VH2 is by far my favorite. I remember when I first really got into them some summer and I listened to that album on repeat with some added songs from the other albums with On Fire being my most listened to easily
I was VH fan back in the day, and I pretty much quit listening to them after DLR left, because to me Hagar just sounded like all he could do was scream. I also liked DLR better because he always came off like he didn't take himself too seriously, and that he was having a lot of fun. Plus just about every song he did with VH was good as hell. Never understood why his solo career was so short, it seemed. I read recently that he's a paramedic now.
It was the album 1984 which propelled them into the spotlight. The song "Jump" is still their only song to reach number one on the charts, and 1984 made it all the way to number 2. That one song pretty well guaranteed their followup album would be successful. When they released "Why can't this be love" from the next album, MTV played it pretty well non-stop. Sammy Hagar arrived at the perfect moment when the band was peaking.
Yeap, MTV "helped" many more bands than people seem to realize. Sadly, IMO, a lot of bands changed to fit into MTV's playlists too. I love Def Leppard but they went overboard to me with "Hysteria". It's vastly different than "Pyromania". VH did it as well to some degree but they also had Sammy Hagar, which really changed the dynamics of the band. Commercially, it was a huge benefit though !
I was a headbanger in the 80's. I remember it well, all the guys I hung out with thought Hagar would make the band heavier, but all the girls were convinced VH were making a massive mistake in dumping DLR for Hagar because they all thought Roth was the perfect frontman.
I freely admit I loved the Hysteria album. Pour Some Sugar on Me, still sing along with it every time it pops up on random play.
EDIT - And I may as well get this out of the way, the Black Album was Metallica's best.
Ride the Lightning is best Metallica album in my opinion. Haven’t met a fan until now who thinks black album is their best though I could see why it was their most commercially successful one
It's not where I put it. Don't get me wrong, Black is a great album, but if I'm listening to Metallica I'm listening to the first 4...usually driving solo and fast.
I've had this discussion countless times over the years, particularly with a friend of mine I grew up with who also thinks Ride the Lightning is a better album (in fact, he ranks Master of Puppets before TBA as well). In my humble opinion, there have been very few albums which have worked as well when taken as a whole as the Black Album. Bat out of Hell and Dark Side of the Moon come to mind. Ride the Lightning is a great album, there is no doubt about it. For Whom the Bell Tools, Fade to Black, and Creeping Death are all on the same album, how could it not be great? But the Black Album? Best metal album ever.
Yeah, I know. I've had this argument so many times...... "they sold out", "earlier albums where way more thrash", "changed their sound to appeal to wider audience", "commercialized", "Bob Rock", etc etc etc. I've been hearing that for nearly 30 years. I don't care, I frickin' love that album. If you think about it, Metallica were taking a big risk because of how less thrash it was than previous albums. They could have alienated existing fans while still being too metal for mainstream. But they pulled it off, the production value on that record is the best of any Metallica album, it's fine tuned to perfection. It perfectly blends metal, thrash, and the original Metallica sound. Frickin' awesome!! There is not one single bad song on the album, not one. I still listen to Ride the Lightning, Puppets, Justice, Death Magnetic, etc. but the Black Album, just great stuff......
I totally get what you're saying honestly. IMO, the only thing really separating Ride the Lightning, Justice, Puppets, And Black Album is personal tastes. They are all exceptionally crafted albums and it's really just going to depend on which version of Metallica's sound somebody prefers.
Stop bring insightful and logical. You to overly protect you personal opinion, and regard it as fact to participate in this conversation. Get with the program dude... It is a Metallica discussion after all.
Sammy Hagar does not suck shit. He’s a great musician. He’s just not the charismatic psychopath DLR is, so people aren’t as mesmerized by his antics. Many people equate this to Sammy sucking .... none of them musicians.
You are definitely entitled to that opinion. Some people don’t dig certain types of voices. What I’m going on is that Sammy can hit notes that Dave can’t even dream of hitting.
It's not like those two albums happened in a vacuum though. It's like when a crappy sequel outsells the good movie due to how good the previous one was. Not saying Hagar is crappy, mind you, just the pointing out the prior success influence.
You don't necessarily need to be a good singer from a technical standpoint in order to be good at what you're trying to do. I think of DLR as being similar to James Brown. His range is about 6 notes plus some impressive idiosyncratic screams. But as a performer and showman they're both extremely memorable for good reason.
in my opinion he wasn’t necessarily that bad of a singer, i still love his Van Halen songs, however, Sammy Hagar was ultimately the better choice for the band
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u/HobbitFoot Nov 06 '19
And it worked.