Tracks 2, 5 and 12 from Van Halen (1978)

Tracks 1 and 10 from Van Halen II (1979)

One of my earliest memories of a music video, or really of music in general, is the "Jump" video, but I was 2 when that came out, so it was probably at least a couple years later by then. Which is to say, I grew up in a world where Sammy Hagar was the frontman of Van Halen but the David Lee Roth era still loomed large over pop culture. I think even in the '90s I saw "Hot For Teacher" and other early VH videos on MTV more than any of their contemporary hits besides "Right Now." It was kind of like how "Cheers" was still on and popular but everyone also watched reruns of the Shelley Long seasons and how she blew it by leaving. 

A good measure of just how much Van Halen shaped and defined rock radio: they have the 3rd most #1s and the 3rd most top 10s on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, despite the fact that the chart was launched in 1981, after the band's hit-packed first 3 albums. There are a dozen songs I still hear on a weekly basis, a dozen more pretty great singles that have been relatively forgotten, and at least a dozen on this playlist that could've been hits, they were just on fire. "Atomic Punk" and "Romeo Delight" have just jaw-dropping guitar sounds on them, I always think about how Back To The Future used Eddie Van Halen's guitar as a teenager's idea of what to use as a futuristic sound to terrify someone in the past. "Light Up The Sky" is interesting to me because the whole opening section is basically a dry run for "Hot For Teacher," and "Take Your Whiskey Home" is my favorite Michael Anthony track, he really showboats in his own right under Eddie's solo.