Rolling Stone Poll Names 10 Favorite VAN HALEN Songs

December 2, 2011

The Pulse Of Radio reports that the readers of Rolling Stone magazine have voted "Unchained" as their favorite VAN HALEN song, according to a new poll that asked fans to name their 10 favorite tracks from the legendary band. Eighty percent of the final list of songs came from the David Lee Roth era of the group, while 20 percent voted for tunes featuring singer Sammy Hagar. No tracks from vocalist Gary Cherone's brief tenure were selected.

"Unchained" is from VAN HALEN's fourth album, 1981's "Fair Warning", which is often regarded as the group's heaviest effort. Rolling Stone said about the track, "It's not quite as famous as 'Jump' or 'Hot for Teacher', but 'Unchained' has frequently been voted the favorite song of VAN HALEN fans. During the interlude, producer Ted Templeman breaks in and says 'Come on, Dave, gimme a break!' Dave responds with, 'One break, coming up!' According to legend, Ted felt that Dave was being too over the top and he scolded him. The band liked the moment and kept it in. Recent evidence suggests that the bit was rehearsed, but it's hard to say for sure. Like most things in the VAN HALEN world, there are two competing narratives of one event."

A new report at the Rolling Stone web site, incidentally, contends that it was the BEACH BOYS, and not VAN HALEN, who were supposed to make a "reunion" announcement at the Grammy Nominations Concert on Wednesday night (November 30) in Los Angeles.

The mystery "iconic" band failed to show up, with The Recording Academy president Neil Portnow saying that they were not "quite at the point" where they wanted to appear.

Many assumed that it was supposed to be VAN HALEN, since a tweet from the Grammy organization namedropped a couple of the band's hits as hints about who the act could be. But the tweet was actually directed at speculation from the web site Hitfix, which had guessed VAN HALEN would be the mystery act.

The "reunion" reference was also confusing, since VAN HALEN reunited with Roth four years ago. The band is expected to release a new album early next year.

The 10 favorite VAN HALEN songs according to Rolling Stone readers:

01. Unchained
02. Panama
03. Hot For Teacher
04. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
05. Jump
06. Runnin' With The Devil
07. Mean Street
08. Eruption
09. Right Now
10. Dreams

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