Take the highs with the blues
That funny feelin again winding me up inside
Every time we touch
Hey I don't know
Just tell me where to begin cause I never ever
Felt so much
No, I can't recall any love at all
Baby. this blows 'em all away.
5150 (pronounced "Fifty-One Fifty") is the seventh studio album recorded by American hard rock band Van Halen, the first with Sammy Hagar as lead singer. It was released through Warner Bros. Records on March 24, 1986.
Following the departure of lead singer David Lee Roth, the band had difficulty finding a replacement. There were all sorts of directions Eddie Van Halen tried to go. At one point, he even invited a female lead, Patty Smyth of the band Scandal. She declined.
They even offered the gig to Daryl Hall. He also declined.
In 1985, Eddie was getting his Ferrari worked on, when the mechanic suggested Sammy Hagar. He had put together a decent solo career since his start with the band Montrose in the early 70s, scoring three Top 40 hits, most recently 1984's "I Can't Drive 55".
Eddie reached out to Sammy, and they hit it off. Sammy accepted the position.
After a few months of work at the band's 5150 Studios, they finally put together a nine-song tracklist that they thought would ensure the band would continue to be a major name in heavy metal. Still, the band ended up veering further into the Glam Metal style that was punctuating hard rock in The '80s.
Eddie and his brother, Alex, declined when Warner Bros. tried to get them to change their name to "Van Hagar", an epithet that was beginning to be used by fans, whether they liked the change of lead singer or not.
Initial reviews were evenly divided. Some reviewers, like Tim Holmes of Rolling Stone (3 out of 5 stars), were bewildered by the hiring of Sammy Hagar. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice graded it a C+, and was skeptical of Hagar's hire, wondering if it would drag down Eddie's guitar work. The retrospective conclusion of Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic (4 out of 5 stars) was that, while Hagar's persona did not lend well to certain plays at the fact that he was the replacement, the album itself worked because of their desire to keep the party going.
The album ended up being a serious hit, going six-times Platinum in the United States, and triple-Platinum in Canada. It hit #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, something their last album with Roth, MCMLXXXIV, was unable to do. (Though there was a fairly good reason why.)
The album was supported by five singles: "Why Can't This Be Love", "Dreams", "Love Walks In", "Summer Nights", and "Best of Both Worlds". All were hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, and three were hits on the Billboard Hot 100. "Why Can't This Be Love", at #3, was their second Top 10 on the US Pop chart, and also hit #8 on the UK Pop chart.
The song "Good Enough" appeared as incidental music in the 1987 film Spaceballs.
Tracklist
Side One- "Good Enough" (4:05)
- "Why Can't This Be Love" (3:48)
- "Get Up" (4:37)
- "Dreams" (4:54)
- "Summer Nights" (5:06)
Side Two
- "Best of Both Worlds" (4:49)
- "Love Walks In" (5:11)
- "'5150'" (5:44)
- "Inside" (5:02)
Personnel
- Sammy Hagar — lead and backing vocals
- Eddie Van Halen — guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
- Michael Anthony — bass guitar, backing vocals
- Alex Van Halen — drums
"Contact is all it takes to change your tropes to lose your place in time":
- Atlas Pose: The cover, with its version of Atlas hoisting the Van Halen globe logo, wearing a chain necklace with the number title.
- Incoming Ham: The album opens on a Lyrical Cold Open of "Hello baby! YEEEEEEEAAAAAH!", showing Hagar was equal to Roth at least in being overblown.
- Instrumental: Averted: this was the first Van Halen album to lack an instrumental-only track.
- Power Ballad: Hagar led to a greater inclusion of these, particularly "Why Can't This Be Love" and "Love Walks In".
- Title by Number: They decided to use the name of the band's private recording studio for the album title. One of the songs shares the title as well.
- Title Track: "'5150'".
