Van Halen Album Opening Songs Ranked Worst to Best

Van Halen knew how to make a strong first impression.

Eddie Van Halen and his bandmates always took care to put their best foot forward, launching their studio albums with an opening track that knocked you on your butt and also gave a taste of what would be new and exciting on that particular record.

12. “Neworld” / “Without You”
From: Van Halen III (1998)

It feels like piling on to place the opening track from the much-maligned Van Halen III here, but it has to be done. We’re combining the instrumental “Neworld” with “Without You” because they share the same melody and are pretty clearly meant to be heard together. Of course “Without You” features some typically dazzling guitar work from Eddie Van Halen, but this aimless song runs nearly seven minutes long and loses momentum long before that.

 

11. “Tattoo”
From: A Different Kind of Truth (2012)

“Tattoo” isn’t a bad song, by any means. In fact it has an insistent, low-key charm that sinks in nicely with repeated listening. But it didn’t deliver the kind of flashy excitement people were expecting from their first taste of Van Halen’s long-awaited reunion with David Lee Roth – and in a 2022 interview Wolfgang Van Halen agreed with them. The follow-up single, “She’s the Woman,” would have been a much better choice as both lead single and album opener.

 

10. “Mine All Mine”
From: OU812 (1988)

Just to avoid saying a variation of this for every entry – these are all good songs, it’s just an intensely competitive field. The distorted keyboard bit at the very beginning of “Mine All Mine” belongs in Eddie Van Halen’s “How the hell did he come up with THAT?” hall of fame, and the rest of the song finds the group boldly pushing into ambitious prog-rock territory, blending keyboards and guitars for something beyond love songs.

 

9. “Where Have All the Good Times Gone!”
From: Diver Down (1982)

Pressured by their label to quickly come up with a new album when what they really needed was a break, Van Halen packed Diver Down with instrumentals and covers. The group played about a half-dozen Kinks covers in their early days, and their version of “You Really Got Me” helped launch their career back in 1978. So they raided the Davies brothers’ catalog again, and came up with another winner in “Where Have All the Good Times Gone!”

 

8. “Good Enough”
From: 5150 (1986)

Stepping into David Lee Roth’s shoes is not for the meek. Sammy Hagar proved he was up for the challenge in the opening seconds of his first album as Van Halen’s lead singer, channeling the Big Bopper with an enthusiastic “Hellooo Babbbbbbbyyyyyy” to kick off “Good Enough.” There are more innovative and enduring songs elsewhere on 5150, but this opening track did its job perfectly by letting fans know they were still at a great party – just with a different host.

 

7. “The Seventh Seal”
From: Balance (1995)

Van Halen were fracturing or under fire in multiple ways by the time they recorded their fourth and final album with Sammy Hagar as their lead singer. But they still managed to put together about half of a great album with 1995’s Balance, and the cinematic opening track “The Seventh Seal” is one of the clear highlights. Opening with chanting monks, the song featured a more sophisticated, Eastern-influenced sound without sacrificing any ass-kicking. Unfortunately, when they tried to bring the monks out to perform it live with them, things didn’t go all that smoothly…

 

6. “Poundcake”
From: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)

After three straight albums that found them delving deeper into pop-friendly sounds, Van Halen decided to re-establish their claim on the hard rock world with the back-to-basics For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. The lead single and opening track famously begins with Eddie Van Halen abusing his guitar with a power drill, but the fun doesn’t stop there. “Poundcake” (and the album as a whole) also features the fullest, most well-rounded production of the “Van Hagar” era to date.

 

5. “1984” / “Jump”
From: 1984 (1984)

We are once again combining two clearly interconnected tracks here. After taking drastic steps – such as building his own recording studio – to get more control over the band’s recording process for 1984, Eddie Van Halen overcame internal objections and pushed keyboards to the front of “Jump.” The result was the band’s first and only chart-topping hit, which catapulted them to even higher levels of fame and (for better or worse) inspired just about every other hard rock band in the world to add keyboards to their sound.

 

4. “You’re No Good”
From: Van Halen II (1979)

The fact that Linda Ronstadt had recorded her own excellent and highly successful cover of the R&B hit “You’re No Good” in 1974 didn’t stop Van Halen from covering it five years later on their second album. “So what, man,” Ted Templeman remembers David Lee Roth telling him, in his book A Platinum Producer’s Life in Music. “We’ll scare people with ours.” That’s exactly what the did, thanks to Eddie Van Halen’s dark, menacing arrangement and dramatic guitar solo. It was one of the earliest signs that Van Halen could be more than just a party band.

 

 Read More: David Lee Roth Albums Ranked Worst to Best

3. “And the Cradle Will Rock…”
From: Women and Children First (1980)

The aforementioned “Jump” wasn’t the first time keyboards appeared on a Van Halen song. That happened four years earlier, with “And the Cradle Will Rock…,” the lead single from 1980’s Women and Children First. However, the electric piano that drives the song’s main riff was processed and put through an amp, so it sounded more like a guitar. After their first two albums were largely drawn from their pre-fame demos, Women and Children First found writing new, more complex and sophisticated songs, without sacrificing their immediate appeal.

 

2. “Runnin’ With the Devil”
From: Van Halen (1978)

This is a very tight race; if this list was written again tomorrow Van Halen’s debut single could easily take the top spot. ‘Runnin’ With the Devil” is the perfect introduction to each of the four members of the band as well as their collective chemistry. It’s Michael Anthony’s thumping bass that begins the song, and his background vocals also play an important role. Rather than show off everything he can do at once – there would be time for that on Van Halen‘s next track, “Eruption” – Eddie Van Halen serves the song by twice repeating a gorgeously composed melodic refrain.

 

1. “Mean Street”
From: Fair Warning (1981)

Eddie Van Halen was in a bit of a mood when it came time to record Van Halen’s fourth record – wary of being pushed into a more pop-friendly direction and restricted from studio exploration. So he took more control over Fair Warning by returning to the studio after his bandmates went home. The result was a dark and aggressive album which many fans consider to be among the band’s finest works. “Mean Street” kicks off with a guitar solo that sounds like a bull being let out of a rodeo pen, and finds the band locking into a sinister and downright dirty groove.