ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 1978

Van Halen's self-titled debut album (later dubbed Van Halen I) is unleashed on the world! Can you imagine the soundtrack of our youth without VH?

FROM VH News Desk

Release Date:	Februrary 11, 1978
Recorded:	September – October 1977 at Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood
Length:	35:13
Producer:	Ted Templeman
Succeeded By:	Van Halen II

Track listing:

1. Runnin’ With The Devil
2. Eruption
3. You Really Got Me
4. Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
5. I’m The One
6. Jamie’s Cryin’
7. Atomic Punk
8. Feel Your Love Tonight
9. Little Dreamer
10. Ice Cream Man
11. On Fire

 

Van Halen’s magnificent 1978 self-titled debut album simultaneously rewrote the rules of rock guitar and hard rock in general. It’s one of those rare debut albums — think The Doors, Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced, Led Zeppelin— that simply announces itself. 

[EDITOR'S NOTEI would add Guns n Roses' Appetite for Destruction to this list as well]

 

Guitarist Eddie Van Halen redefines what the electric guitar could do, developing a blindingly fast technique with a variety of self-taught two-handed tapping, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and effects. Eddie’s playing is wildly inventive and over the top, and his lightning-fast guitar leads are everywhere (especially the under two-minute instrumental explosion of “Eruption”, which revolutionized the guitar community by introducing a technique called finger-tapping into the heavy metal lexicon.) Michael Anthony’s swinging yet thunderous bass matches up perfectly with drummer Alex Van Halen’s quirky sense of time, and singer David Lee Roth, who brought the role of a metal singer to near-performance art standards, is simply on fire from the onset.