The two classic Eddie Van Halen songs Van Halen hated
The relationship between artists and their hits has always been a complicated one. While certain singles can catapult an act to fame, earning them widespread acclaim, financial success, and a place in the collective consciousness, those same songs can often become a burden for the people who created them. In the case of Eddie Van Halen’s eponymous band, Van Halen, creative differences with their guitarist led to the group disliking two of their most iconic hits.
There has never been any doubt that Van Halen was Eddie’s band. As a founding member, along with his brother Alex on drums, the group even took their surname as its identity. Beyond that, Eddie was the mastermind behind the operation and its most gifted member. He revolutionised guitar playing with his innovative two-handed tapping technique, explosive dive bombs, raw power, and his unique ability to fuse hard rock and metal with other genres.
According to fellow guitar hero Ritchie Blackmore – one of his inspirations – he “started a technique of guitar playing which was emulated by a whole generation of guitarists”.
It’s true that without this fusion of talent and creative vision, guitar-playing, rock, and metal would be without several key tenets. However, to reach this status, Van Halen had to go through what every group does: an arduous creative process in a room of four prominent characters and great musicians at that.
The band’s 1978 self-titled debut was a big hit, featuring a popular cover of The Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’ and Eddie’s pioneering instrumental, ‘Eruption’; they were thrust into the spotlight following its release. Accordingly, when they returned to the studio to work on what became 1979’s Van Halen II, the group were exhausted and so turned to old demos.
However, one song was born out of originality when the band members were humming at each other: ‘Dance the Night Away’. Another accessible pop song perfect for a renewed chart surge, it blended Eddie’s trademark playing techniques with a somewhat power pop, Cheap Trick-esque feeling. However, due to this sugary nature, the band members hated it. It was only because producer Ted Templeman liked it that it saw the light of day.
In 1996, Eddie explained to Guitar World how the band hated ‘Dance the Night Away’: “I had the basic riff, and I played it for the guys before we went into the studio, and they didn’t like it. But then I played it for Ted [Templeman], and he reallydug it, so we worked on it and put it together in the studio”.
Given that Eddie was the executive of the band, over the years, his prominence would gradually begin to rub David Lee Roth up the wrong way. A schism would form, with the colourful frontman wanting more hit covers, and a generally more cheesy vibe, whereas the guitarist was always looking for ways to innovate.
The following irony is not lost on me. Towards the end of this iteration of the band, when they were working on their last record with Roth for decades, 1984’s Van Halen, Roth and the rest of the group were aghast when Eddie came to the group with the germ of the smash hit ‘Jump’, which is, of course, based around synthesisers.
Eddie told Forbes years later: “It’s like ‘Jump,’ it was our only number one single. Believe it or not I built my studio to put that song on our record cause everyone hated it”. This was the beginning of the end for this chapter of the band, with Eddie tightening his grip and Roth moving closer to the exit.
Against expectations, ‘Jump’ became a massive hit, offsetting the maximalist synths with Eddie’s tapping solo. However, the writing was on the wall, and after creative differences hit boiling point on the road, Roth announced his departure. The band were left in limbo until an unlikely saviour, former Montrose frontman Sammy Hagar, appeared.
