1.
Michael Wendler
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Michael Wendler is a prominent and distinguished German pop singer and songwriter. Since his breakthrough year in 1998, he has won awards such as the prestigious Crown of the Folk Music. Award in 2012 and Most Successful Pop Star of the Year and he has been under contract with Sony Entertainment Record Label for many years and has a total of six gold Records and one platinum. Wendler also writes songs and lyrics for other Schlager singers under the pseudonym Mic Skowy, in March 2009 he married his long time love, Claudia Norberg civilly on Sylt and in April 2009 had a church wedding on Mallorca. The image rights for this celebration he sold to the womens magazine Da Neue, January 9,2010 Wendler was named the most successful singer in 2009 and was given the Crown of Folk Music Award. He settled in Dinslaken, building an estate complete with horse stables. In September 2011, Michael Wendler, together with Markus Krampe, opened the Nina a discothèque in Bottrop, another offshoot of the successful nightclub was opened in Cologne. In 2016 Michael Wendler moved his family to Ft. Myers, Florida, in January 2010, The Wendler Clan was aired on the popular German television network Sat.1 in a six-part docu-soap broadcast featuring Michael Wendler. In January 2014, Wendler participated in the reality show Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus. on the RTL, in 2015, he participated in the TV show de, Ich bin ein Star – Lasst mich wieder rein. While he was injured during the taping of an episode and had to pull out and he was hurt in a bungee cord accident and broke his right wrist with a compound fracture, requiring an emergency operation. From 15 August 2014 to 29 August 2014 Michael Wendler participated in the program Promi Big Brother and finished there in fifth place
2.
Van Halen
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Jan Van Halen, born Jan van Halen, was a Dutch musician and the patriarch of the Van Halen family. He was the father of Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen, Van Halen was born on January 18,1920, to Jannetje Berg and Hermanus van Halen, a butcher in Amsterdam. He had already made a career in music when in 1939, at the age of 19 and he joined the Royal Dutch Air Force and played marches for the troops until the country was occupied in 1940, forcing him to play propaganda music for the Third Reich. After the war ended in 1945, Van Halen emigrated to the Dutch East Indies, where he pursued his career and met his future wife. They married on August 11,1950 in Jakarta, Alex was born two months later in Amsterdam. The Van Halen family moved to Nijmegen, where Eddie was born in January 1955, in 1960, Jan played his biggest gig with the Ton Wijkamp Quintet, playing the Loosdrecht Jazz Festival. However, after hearing stories from her side of the family and they left in February 1962 by boat and moved across the continent by train to Pasadena, California. To complete their transition, they Americanized their surname from van Halen to Van Halen, in May 1986, Jan suffered a heart attack. He died due to the effects of alcoholism on December 9,1986 and his sons dedicated their 1988 album OU812 to their father, quoting This ones for you, pa. On August 4,2005, his wife Eugenia Van Halen passed away at the age of 89
3.
Hard rock
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Hard rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music that began in the mid-1960s, with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. It is typified by a use of aggressive vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums. Hard rock developed into a form of popular music in the 1970s, with bands such as The Who, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, AC/DC. During the 1980s, some rock bands moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock. Hard rock began losing popularity with the success of R&B, hip-hop, urban pop, grunge. Out of this movement came garage rock bands like The White Stripes, The Strokes, Interpol and, later on, in the 2000s, only a few hard rock bands from the 1970s and 1980s managed to sustain highly successful recording careers. Hard rock is a form of loud, aggressive rock music, the electric guitar is often emphasised, used with distortion and other effects, both as a rhythm instrument using repetitive riffs with a varying degree of complexity, and as a solo lead instrument. Drumming characteristically focuses on driving rhythms, strong drum and a backbeat on snare. The bass guitar works in conjunction with the drums, occasionally playing riffs, vocals are often growling, raspy, or involve screaming or wailing, sometimes in a high range, or even falsetto voice. In the late 1960s, the heavy metal was used interchangeably with hard rock. Heavy metal took on darker characteristics after Black Sabbaths breakthrough at the beginning of the 1970s, in the 1980s it developed a number of subgenres, often termed extreme metal, some of which were influenced by hardcore punk, and which further differentiated the two styles. Despite this differentiation, hard rock and heavy metal have existed side by side, with bands frequently standing on the boundary of, other antecedents include Link Wrays instrumental Rumble in 1958, and the surf rock instrumentals of Dick Dale, such as Lets Go Trippin and Misirlou. In the 1960s, American and British blues and rock bands began to rock and roll by adding harder sounds, heavier guitar riffs, bombastic drumming. From the late 1960s, it common to divide mainstream rock music that emerged from psychedelia into soft. Soft rock was often derived from rock, using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody. In contrast, hard rock was most often derived from rock and was played louder. Blues rock acts that pioneered the sound included Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, in songs like I Feel Free combined blues rock with pop and psychedelia, particularly in the riffs and guitar solos of Eric Clapton. Jimi Hendrix produced a form of blues-influenced psychedelic rock, which combined elements of jazz, blues and rock, from 1967 Jeff Beck brought lead guitar to new heights of technical virtuosity and moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band, The Jeff Beck Group
4.
Heavy metal music
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Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles are associated with aggression. The first heavy metal such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. During the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the evolution by discarding much of its blues influence, Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility. Beginning in the late 1970s, bands in the new wave of British heavy metal such as Iron Maiden, before the end of the decade, heavy metal fans became known as metalheads or headbangers. During the 1980s, glam metal became popular with such as Mötley Crüe. Since the mid-1990s popular styles have further expanded the definition of the genre and these include groove metal and nu metal, the latter of which often incorporates elements of grunge and hip hop. Heavy metal is characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound. Metal subgenres variously emphasize, alter, or omit one or more of these attributes, the typical band lineup includes a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, and a singer, who may or may not be an instrumentalist. Keyboard instruments are used to enhance the fullness of the sound. Deep Purples Jon Lord played an overdriven Hammond organ, in 1970, John Paul Jones used a Moog synthesizer on Led Zeppelin III, by the 1990s, in. almost every subgenre of heavy metal synthesizers were used. The electric guitar and the power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal. The heavy metal guitar sound comes from a use of high volumes. Guitar solos are an element of the heavy metal code. That underscores the significance of the guitar to the genre, most heavy metal songs featur at least one guitar solo, which is a primary means through which the heavy metal performer expresses virtuosity. One exception is nu metal bands, which tend to omit guitar solos, with rhythm guitar parts, the heavy crunch sound in heavy metal. Palm muting the strings with the hand and using distortion. Palm muting creates a tighter, more sound and it emphasizes the low end
5.
Warner Bros. Records
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Warner Bros. Records was established on March 19,1958, as the recorded-music division of the American film studio Warner Bros. For most of its existence it was one of a group of labels owned and operated by larger parent corporations. The sequence of companies that controlled Warner Bros. and its allied labels evolved through a series of corporate mergers. Over this period, Warner Bros. Records grew from a minor player in the music industry to become one of the top recording labels in the world. In 2003, these assets were divested by their then owner Time Warner. This independent company traded as the Warner Music Group before being bought by Access Industries in 2011, WMG is the smallest of the three major international music conglomerates and the worlds last publicly traded major music company. Cameron Strang serves as CEO of the company, artists currently signed to Warner Bros. At the end of the silent movie period, Warner Bros, pictures decided to expand into publishing and recording so that it could access low-cost music content for its films. This new group controlled valuable copyrights on standards by George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern, the label signed rising radio and recording stars Bing Crosby, Mills Brothers, and Boswell Sisters. In December 1931, Warner Bros. offloaded Brunswick to the American Record Corporation for a fraction of its former value, in a lease arrangement which did not include Brunswicks pressing plants. Warner Bros. sold Brunswick a second time, this time along with the old Brunswick pressing plants Warner owned, to Decca Records in exchange for a financial interest in Decca. The studio stayed out of the business for more than 25 years. Warner Bros. reëntered the record business in 1958 with the establishment of its own recording division, by this time, the established Hollywood studios were reeling from multiple challenges to their former dominance - the most notable being the introduction of television in the late 1940s. Legal changes also had a impact on their business—lawsuits brought by major stars had effectively overthrown the old studio contract system by the late 1940s. Pictures sold off much of its library in 1948 and, beginning in 1949. Semenenko in particular had a professional interest in the entertainment business. With the record business booming - sales had topped US$500 million by 1958 - Semnenko argued that it was foolish for Warner Bros, another impetus for the labels creation was the brief music career of Warner Bros. actor Tab Hunter. In 1958, the studio signed Hunter as its first artist to its newly formed record division, to establish the label, the company hired former Columbia Records president James B
6.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
7.
Mick Jones (Foreigner guitarist)
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Michael Leslie Mick Jones is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the founding member of the rock band Foreigner. Prior to Foreigner, he was in the band Spooky Tooth, michael Leslie Jones was born in Portsmouth, England. He started playing guitar at an early age, after attending a couple of concerts by Elvis Presley, Jones decided to pursue a career in music. He began his career in the early 1960s as a member of the band Nero and the Gladiators. When The Beatles toured France in 1964, they befriended Mick when Hallyday played on the bill as they did. Between 1965 and 1971 Jones recorded in France with Tommy Brown as State of Mickey & Tommy, as well as other session names including the Blackburds, Nimrod. After leaving France to return to his country, Jones joined Gary Wright, formerly of the band Spooky Tooth. In 1972 Jones and Wright reformed Spooky Tooth, and after this Jones was a member of the Leslie West Band and he also played guitar on the albums Wind of Change for Peter Frampton, and Dark Horse for George Harrison. In 1976, Jones formed Foreigner with Ian McDonald and recruited lead singer Lou Gramm, Jones co-produced all of the bands albums and co-wrote most of their songs with Gramm. Jones wrote the bands most successful single, I Want to Know What Love Is, Gramm left the band in 1990 but returned in 1992. In 1989, Jones released his solo album titled Mick Jones on the Atlantic Records label. Jones is the person to play on every Foreigner album. In between his Foreigner commitments, Jones also started a career as a producer for such albums as Van Halens 5150. He co-wrote with Eric Clapton the song Bad Love on Claptons Journeyman album, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he played with Bill Wymans Rhythm Kings. He was married to socialite/writer Ann Dexter-Jones, mother of Mark, Samantha, Ann and Mick have two children, Annabelle and Alexander Dexter-Jones. Married for nearly 25 years, in 2007 Jones and Dexter-Jones divorced and he also has two sons, from prior relationships, Roman and Christopher Jones
8.
Balance (Van Halen album)
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Balance is the tenth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on January 24,1995 by Warner Bros. The album is the last of the four studio releases to feature Sammy Hagar as the lead singer. Balance reached number 1 on the U. S. Billboard 200 in February 1995 and reached Triple Platinum status on May 12,2004 by selling more than three million copies in the U. S. According to Ian Christes book, Everybody Wants Some, The Van Halen Saga, the band worked eight-hour days for three weeks recording the album. The first song on the record, The Seventh Seal, features mystical overtones that came, in part and his therapist, Sat-Kaur Khalsa, urged him to relax and imagine where he was after drinking a six-pack of beer. After smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, and playing guitar for twenty years, he tried writing songs sober, the album then moves into Sammy’s territory with Can’t Stop Lovin’ You. This song was taken from his ex-wife’s point of view, believing that she was still in love with him, the band saw more success with its hard rock genre as seen in the album’s song, Aftershock. The album reached number 1, their fourth number one studio album. It was mixed by Mike Fraser and mastered at Sterling Sound, New York, following the recording of Balance and its subsequent Ambulance Tour, Van Halens second incarnation broke up. It got so bad that I actually started drinking again, the Seventh Seal kicks off the album. Complete with chanting monks and dangling metal bells, the song unveiled a vast, open, as a side note Eddie revealed in 2012 that The Seventh Seal was written before Van Halen became a band. Amsterdam was written about the city of Eddie and Alex Van Halens country of birth, their actual birthplace being the town of Nijmegen. Eddie is on record in Guitar World as saying, I always hated the words to Wham, Bam Amsterdam, from Balance, lyrics should plant some sort of seed for thought, or at least be a little more metamorphical. During The Balance tour show in Pensacola, Florida, Hagar stated that Take Me Back was a true story. The song itself features a then almost 20-year-old riff Eddie had previously used on a song entitled No More Waiting which the played on occasion in the pre-Van Halen I era. The original title of the album was The Seventh Seal, to which photographer Glen Wexler created some concepts, eventually they picked Balance, which Alex explained to Wexler was about the turmoil and changes surrounding Van Halen, including the recent death of long-time manager Ed Leffler. Alex asked something exploring the duality of the human psyche, Wexler then sketched new concepts, with the band liking the one with conjoined twins on a see-saw. The images were combined with a landscape for the background using Corel Painter
9.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
10.
Humans Being
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Humans Being is a song recorded and contributed by the rock band Van Halen for the film, Twister. The song marks the last recording to feature vocalist Sammy Hagar before his departure from the band in June 1996, the band played it live during the III Tour and the Van Halen Summer Tour 2004. Eventually the singer relented as Danniels talked about the benefits of the songs. Humans Being, which was written with Alex as Sammy wrote a ballad with Eddie, Between Us Two, was named by the singer as The Silent Extreme. The songs lyrics proved a source of contention. Alex called the director, Jan De Bont, to ask him how closely he wanted the lyrics to be related to the movies context, to which De Bont replied Oh. I dont want this to be a narrative for the movie, Hagar obliged, and then asked De Bont for some footage of Twister. De Bont and Budd Carr also sent Hagar a folder with terms used by storm chasers as the singer felt he could add lyrics with terms such as suck zone, the brothers still disliked Hagars first lyrics, and he had to come up with new ones. Hagar wanted to record his vocals from Hawaii, where he, the band refused, wanting him to work with them at Eddies 5150 Studios in Los Angeles. After three trips to California, Hagar eventually decided to move with his back to his San Francisco home to keep her near. After the first recordings of songs, Hagar was about to leave for Hawaii when Eddie announced that they wanted to ditch Between Us Two. Hagar wrote two verses with producer Bruce Fairbairn and recorded them in about an hour and a half before departing for his flight. When a second ended up being required, attempts to bring Sammy back and rework Between Us Two were unsuccessful, so Alex. Billboard praised the tasty riffs and vocal acrobatics of the song, the song reached number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for two weeks, becoming their eleventh chart-topper. It won a 1996 Metal Edge Readers Choice Award for Best Song From a Movie Soundtrack, Eddie Van Halen - guitars, backing vocals Alex Van Halen - drums Sammy Hagar - lead vocals Michael Anthony - bass guitar, backing vocals Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
11.
Me Wise Magic
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It was the first of two highly anticipated tracks recorded by the band with its original lead vocalist and songwriter, David Lee Roth. After Warner Bros. Records notified David Lee Roth that a Van Halen greatest hits album was coming, Roth contacted Eddie Van Halen asking for more details. The singer and the guitarist got in again, and two weeks later Eddie, realizing Humans Being was the only new track on the compilation. Eddie first wrote a song for Roth that he didnt particularly care for, eventually when checking all the new songs along with Eddie and producer Glen Ballard, Roth narrowed down to a shuffle, Cant Get This Stuff No More, and a pop song, Me Wise Magic. Roth was at first bothered by the introduction, but eventually came to like the song. Eddies nickname for the demo was The Three Faces of Shamus, Roth discarded Ballards sketch lyrics and wrote his own, and denied the suggestion to get help from songwriter Desmond Child. In June 1996, Roth arrived at 5150 Studios with Eddie without the guitarist warning bandmembers Michael Anthony, Eddie Van Halens guitar playing on the song features a whammy bar that raises and lowers chords while still keeping them in tune. This effect was achieved by recording with a modified Peavey Wolfgang signature model, featuring a TransTrem tremolo system. The lyrics to Me Wise Magic, written by David Lee Roth, were based on a set of lyrics by the songs producer Glen Ballard. A promo CD of Me Wise Magic was distributed to radio prior to the release of Van Halens Best of Volume I. The return of Roth to Van Halen made media headlines, with MTV going as far as to play a celebratory welcome back commercial for the charismatic Roth. Weeks after an appearance at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards caused a public and media sensation, Van Halen parted ways - for a second time, a planned video for Me Wise Magic was never filmed. The first proposal, of a video with a Voodoo theme, was discarded by Roth. However, in lieu of a video, MTV created a montage of Van Halen and Roth clips set to the song, lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
12.
AllMusic
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AllMusic is an online music guide service website. It was launched in 1991 by All Media Guide which later became All Media Network, AllMusic was launched in 1991 by Michael Erlewine of All Media Guide. The aim was to discographic information on every artist whos made a record since Enrico Caruso gave the industry its first big boost and its first reference book was published the following year. When first released onto the Internet, AMG predated the World Wide Web and was first available as a Gopher site, the AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in July 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. All Media Network, LLC. was formed by the founders of SideReel. com. The following are contributors to AllMusic, as of this date, All Media Network also produced the AllMusic guide series that includes the AllMusic Guide to Rock, the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues. Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of the series, in August 2007, PC Magazine included AllMusic in its Top 100 Classic Websites list. All Media Network AllGame AllMovie SideReel All Music Guide to the Blues All Music Guide to Jazz Stephen Thomas Erlewine Official website
13.
Q (magazine)
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Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. Q was first published by the EMAP media group in October 1986, setting apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography. In the early years, the magazine was sub-titled The modern guide to music, originally it was to be called Cue, but the name was changed so that it wouldnt be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason, cited in Qs 200th edition, is that a title would be more prominent on newsstands. In January 2008 EMAP sold its consumer titles, including Q. The magazine has a review section, featuring, new releases, reissues, music compilations, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio. It uses a system from one to five stars, indeed. While its content is non-free they host an archive of all of their magazine covers, much of the magazine is devoted to interviews with popular musical artists. It is well known for compiling lists and it has created many, ranging from The 100 Greatest albums to the 100 Greatest 100 Greatest Lists. Every other month, Q — and its magazine, Mojo — have a special edition. These have been about musical times, genres, or a very important/influential musician, often, promotional gifts are given away, such as cover-mounted CDs or books. The January 2006 issue included a copy of The Greatest Rock. Every issue of Q has a different message on the spine, readers then try to work out what the message has to do with the contents of the mag. This practice — known as the spine line — has since become commonplace among British lifestyle magazines, including Qs sister publication, Empire, on 4 March 2007, Q named Elvis Presley the greatest singer of all time. The magazine has a relationship with the Glastonbury Festival, producing both a free daily newspaper on site during the festival and a review magazine available at the end of the festival. In late 2008 Q revamped its image, with an amount of text. This Rolling Stone-isation has led to criticism from much of the traditional Q readership, in 2006, Q published a readers survey, the 100 Greatest Songs Ever, won by Oasis Live Forever. Q has a history of associating with charitable organisations, and in 2006 the British anti-poverty charity War on Want was named its official charity, in the April 2007 issue, Q published an article containing the 100 Greatest Singers, won by Elvis Presley
14.
Robert Christgau
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Robert Thomas Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed Dean of American Rock Critics. One of the earliest professional rock critics, he spent 37 years as the music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music, and is a visiting arts teacher at New York University. Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, first published in his Consumer Guide columns during his tenure at The Village Voice from 1969 to 2006 and he has written three books based on those columns, along with two collections of essays. He continued writing capsule reviews in MSN Music, Cuepoint, Christgau was born in Greenwich Village and grew up in Queens, the son of a fireman. He has said he became a rock and roll fan when disc jockey Alan Freed moved to the city in 1954. After attending a school in New York City, he left New York for four years to attend Dartmouth College. While at college his musical interests turned to jazz, but he returned to rock after moving back to New York. Christgau has said that Miles Davis 1960 album Sketches of Spain initiated in him one phase of the disillusionment with jazz that resulted in my return to rock and he was deeply influenced by New Journalism writers such as Gay Talese and Tom Wolfe. My ambitions when I went into journalism were always, to an extent, literary, Christgau initially wrote short stories, before giving up fiction in 1964 to become a sportswriter, and later, a police reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger. He became a writer after a story he wrote about the death of a woman in New Jersey was published by New York magazine. He was asked to take over the dormant music column at Esquire, after Esquire discontinued the column, Christgau moved to The Village Voice in 1969, and he also worked as a college professor. In early 1972, he accepted a job as music critic for Newsday. Christgau returned to the Village Voice in 1974 as music editor and he remained there until August 2006, when he was fired shortly after the papers acquisition by New Times Media. Two months later, Christgau became an editor at Rolling Stone. Late in 2007, Christgau was fired by Rolling Stone, although he continued to work for the magazine for three months. Starting with the March 2008 issue, he joined Blender, where he was listed as senior critic for three issues and then contributing editor, Christgau had been a regular contributor to Blender before he joined Rolling Stone. He continued to write for Blender until the magazine ceased publication in March 2009, in 1987, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Folklore and Popular Culture to study the history of popular music
15.
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
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The Rolling Stone Album Guide, previously known as The Rolling Stone Record Guide, is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from Rolling Stone magazine. Its first edition was published in 1979 and its last in 2004, the guide can be seen at Rate Your Music, while a list of albums given a five star rating by the guide can be seen at Rocklist. net. The Rolling Stone Record Guide was the first edition of what would later become The Rolling Stone Album Guide and it was edited by Dave Marsh and John Swenson, and included contributions from 34 other music critics. It is divided into sections by musical genre and then lists artists alphabetically within their respective genres, Albums are also listed alphabetically by artist although some of the artists have their careers divided into chronological periods. Dave Marsh, in his Introduction, cites as precedents Leonard Maltins book TV Movies and he gives Phonolog and Schwanns Records & Tape Guide as raw sources of information. The first edition included black and white photographs of many of the covers of albums which received five star reviews and these titles are listed together in the Five-Star Records section, which is coincidentally five pages in length. The edition also included reviews for many artists including Lenny Bruce, Lord Buckley, Bill Cosby, The Firesign Theatre, Spike Jones. Comedy artists were listed in the catch-all section Rock, Soul, Country and Pop, which included the genres of folk, bluegrass, funk, traditional pop performers were not included, with the notable exceptions of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. Included too were some artists who might now be considered as world music. Big band jazz was handled selectively, with certain band leaders omitted, many other styles of jazz did appear in the Jazz section. The book was notable for the time in the provocative, in your style of many of its reviews. For example, writing about Neil Youngs song, Down by the River and his colleague, Dave Marsh, in reviewing the three albums of the jazz fusion group Chase, gave a one-word review, Flee. Good, a record of average worth, but one that might possess considerable appeal for fans of a particular style, mediocre, a record that is artistically insubstantial, though not truly wretched. Poor, a record where even technical competence is at question or it was remarkably ill-conceived, worthless, a record that need never have been created. Reserved for the most bathetic bathwater, Dave Marsh John Swenson Billy Altman Bob Blumenthal Georgia Christgau Jean-Charles Costa Chet Flippo Russell Gersten Mikal Gilmore Alan E. Like the first edition, it was edited by Dave Marsh and it included contributions from 52 music critics and featured chronological album listings under the name of each artist. In many cases, updates from the first edition consist of short, the only difference is that in addition to a rating, the second edition employs the pilcrow mark to indicate a title that was out of print at the time the guide was published. Many records had their ratings lowered as the book now offered a revisionist slant to rocks history and it included contributions from 16 music critics and featured alphabetical album listings under the name of each artist
16.
Diver Down
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Diver Down is the fifth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1982. It spent 65 weeks on the chart in the United States and had, by 1998. The album cover displays the diver down flag used in many US jurisdictions. Asked about the cover in a 1982 interview with Sylvie Simmons and you put up the red flag with the white slash. Well, a lot of people approach Van Halen as sort of the abyss and it means, its not immediately apparent to your eyes what is going on underneath the surface. Five of the songs on the album are covers, the most popular being the cover of Pretty Woman. At the time, the company thought it had a greater chance of a hit record if the album was composed of songs that were already successful. In retrospect, it turned out to be one of the Van Halen brothers least-favorite albums, Dave came up with the idea of, Hey, why dont we start off the new year with just putting out a single. He wanted to do Dancing in the Streets and he gave me the original Martha Reeves & the Vandellas tape, and I listened to it and said, I cant get a handle on anything out of this song. I couldnt figure out a riff, and you know the way I like to play, I always like to do a riff, as opposed to just hitting barre chords and strumming. So I said, Look, if you want to do a cover tune and we went to Sunset Sound in L. A. recorded it, and it came out right after the first of the year. It started climbing the charts, so all of a sudden Warner Bros. is going and we said, Wait a minute, we just did that to keep us out there, so that people know were still alive. But they just kept pressuring, so we jumped right back in without any rest or time to recuperate from the tour and we spent 12 days making the album. In addition to this, two of the songs were around long before the album was made. Hang Em High can trace its roots back to the bands 1977 demos as Last Night, Cathedral was also nothing new, being played in its current form throughout 1981 with earlier versions going back to 1980. Additionally, Happy Trails had been recorded for their 1977 demos as a joke. In the bands licensed game, Guitar Hero, Van Halen, six of the tracks of this album are available for play, Hang Em High, Cathedral, Intruder, Pretty Woman, Little Guitars. The game puts Intruder and Pretty Woman together as one track and it also does this with both parts of Little Guitars
17.
Twister (1996 film)
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Twister is a 1996 American disaster film starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as storm chasers researching tornadoes. It was directed by Jan de Bont from a screenplay by Michael Crichton and its executive producers were Steven Spielberg, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Gerald R. Molen. Twister was the film of 1996 domestically, with an estimated 54,688,100 tickets sold in the US. The plot is a view of research projects like VORTEX of the NOAA. The device used in the movie, called Dorothy, is copied from the real-life TOTO, in June 1969, 5-year-old Jo Thornton, her parents, and the family dog Toby seek shelter in their family storm cellar as a powerful F5 tornado hits their farm in Oklahoma. This tornado is so strong that the cellar door is ripped off. Jo, her mother, and Toby survive and he is planning to marry reproductive therapist Melissa Reeves. They need Jos signature on the papers and have tracked her down during an active bout of stormy weather. Jo has built four identical tornado research devices called DOROTHY, based on Bills designs, the device is designed to release hundreds of sensors into the center of a tornado to study its structure from the inside, with the purpose of creating a more advanced storm warning system. Bill and Melissa join Jo and her team of storm chasers, and the team encounters Dr. Jonas Miller, a smug, corporate-funded meteorologist and storm chaser. When Bill discovers that Jonas has created a device based on DOROTHY, called DOT-3, during the first tornado, Jos truck and DOROTHY I are both destroyed. They continue storm chasing in Bills truck, with Melissa in the back seat and they find a second tornado, a confirmed F2, and head off on a back road when the twister shifts its track. Theyre fine, but Melissa becomes hysterical from the ordeal, the team visits Jos Aunt Meg in Wakita, Oklahoma, for food and rest. While Jo is busy showering, Bill tells Melissa about his relationship with Jo and they soon learn that an F3 tornado has formed near some hills, but they have trouble finding it. As Jo jumps out to gather the dozens of mini sensors, Bill pulls the upset Jo into the truck and moves to safety. The two confront each other over their marriage and Jos obsession with stopping tornadoes, due to being devastated about her fathers death, by this time Melissa has been traumatized by the experiences and recognizes the unresolved feelings between Bill and Jo. In desperation for her own safety, she breaks off the engagement with Bill. The tornado continues on to Wakita, devastating the town and injuring Meg while destroying her house, Bill and Jo rescue Meg and her dog from the collapsing house
18.
David Lee Roth
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David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, musician, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. In 2007, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Roth is best known as the original and current lead singer of hard rock band Van Halen. He is also known as a solo artist, releasing numerous RIAA-certified Gold. After more than two decades apart, Roth re-joined Van Halen in 2006 for a North American tour that became the highest grossing in the bands history, in 2012, Roth and Van Halen released the comeback album A Different Kind of Truth. Roth was born in Bloomington, Indiana and he is the son of Sibyl Roth and ophthalmologist Nathan Roth and the brother of Allison and Lisa Roth. Nathan Roth was an eye surgeon who made millions via his practice. The senior Roth was featured on the TV show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous in 1984, Nathan owned a 14, 000-square-foot home in Pasadena, California named Rothwood as well as a chateau named Bradbury. Several members of his family were surgeons, uncles Dave and Marty, and his uncle, Manny Roth, built and owned the New York, N. Y. establishment Cafe Wha. in the early 1960s, which featured performers such as Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. At age seven, Roth got his first taste of business from the inside by hanging out at Cafe Wha. as mentioned in his book Crazy from the Heat. His uncle was one of Roths first guests on his radio show on New Yorks 92.3 Free-FM. After living in Bloomington, Indiana, and Swampscott, Massachusetts, Roth moved to Pasadena, California, while he was in his teens. He attended The Webb Schools in Claremont, California, and John Muir High School in Pasadena, then Pasadena City College where he met the Van Halen brothers, Eddie, during this period Roth worked as a hospital orderly. By the time Roth was in his teens, he was singing solo. Roth states this name was a reference to the red dye used in food at that time, including red candy balls, another Los Angeles group, Mammoth, occasionally rented the Red Ball Jets PA system. Roth was invited to join Mammoth as lead singer, in 1974, told that another act was using the name, they changed their name from Mammoth to Van Halen. Performing both original and cover songs, Van Halen eventually gained local success, becoming a feature at the Starwood Club. It was during their four-month stint there that they were first discovered, in 1976, Gene Simmons took note of the band and assisted them in producing their first demo tape. Although featuring many of the songs that would be included on their debut album
19.
Eddie Van Halen
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Edward Lodewijk Eddie Van Halen is a Dutch-American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, occasional keyboardist and he is considered one of the most influential guitarists in the history of rock music. In 2011, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Van Halen number eight in the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, in 2012, he was voted number one in a Guitar World magazine readers poll for The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Born in Nijmegen, Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk van Halen is the son of Dutch father, Jan van Halen, a clarinetist, saxophonist, and pianist, Van Halens middle name, Lodewijk, is after composer Ludwig van Beethoven, Lodewijk being the Dutch equivalent of Ludwig. He continued this tradition by naming his son Wolfgang Van Halen after composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in February 1962, the Van Halen family moved to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California. Both Eddie and his brother, Alex, are naturalized U. S. citizens. The Van Halen brothers learned to play the piano as children starting at the age of six and they commuted from Pasadena to San Pedro to study with an elderly man, Stasys Kalvaitis who taught them classical piano. Although they hated the commute, they continued as their mother would discipline them if they refused to go, Van Halen revealed in an interview that he never could read the music. Instead, he learned from watching and listening, during recitals of Bach or Mozart, he would simply wing it. From 1964 through 1967, Edward won first place in the piano competition held at Long Beach City College. Afterward, the judges would comment that he had an interpretation of the classical piece. I thought I was playing it correctly, however, according to one interview, playing the piano did not prove to be challenging or interesting to him. Consequently, while Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit, after Eddie heard Alexs performance of The Surfaris drum solo in the song Wipe Out, he decided to switch instruments and began learning how to play the electric guitar. According to Eddie Van Halen, as a teen, he would often practice while walking around at home with his guitar strapped on or sitting in his room for hours with the door locked. Van Halen acknowledged the importance of super group Creams Im So Glad on Goodbye Cream to be mind-blowing and he once claimed that he had learned almost all of Eric Claptons solos in the band Cream. note for note. Ive always said Eric Clapton was my influence, Van Halen said. Van Halen would later say that this was when he first felt the desire to become a professional musician, in 1972, Van Halen formed another band, originally called Genesis. The name was changed to Mammoth when Van Halen became aware of the English progressive rock band of the same name, Mammoth consisted of Van Halen on guitar and lead vocals, his brother Alex on drums and bass guitarist Mark Stone
20.
Alex Van Halen
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Alexander Arthur Alex Van Halen is a Dutch-American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. Originally, his brother Eddie played drums, while Alex practiced guitar, after spending time playing Eddies drum kit, Alex became more skillful at the drums than Eddie. In 1974, the Van Halen brothers, David Lee Roth and they were signed to Warner Brothers in 1977 and released their debut album in 1978. The two brothers are the members of Van Halen who have been in the band for its entire duration. Alexander Arthur Van Halen was born in Nijmegen and his Dutch father Jan was an accomplished jazz saxophonist and clarinet player. His mother Eugenia van Beers was an Indo from Rangkasbitung, Indonesia and he spent his childhood in Nijmegen in the east of the country. The family moved to Pasadena, California in 1962, both Alex and his younger brother, Eddie, are naturalized U. S. citizens. Both Alex and Eddie Van Halen were trained as classical pianists in their childhood, although Alex is known as a professional drummer, he began his musical aspirations as a guitarist, with his brother Eddie taking up drums. While Eddie was delivering newspapers to pay for his drum kit, when Eddie heard Alexs mastery of The Surfaris drum solo in the song Wipe Out, he decided to learn to play the electric guitar. Alex was influenced by Budgie drummer Ray Phillips, in 1971, Alex graduated from Pasadena High School in California. He then took classes in theory, scoring, composition. While attending Pasadena City College, Alex met Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth and they formed the band Mammoth, and Alex, along with the others, left Pasadena City College. Alex had several bands with Eddie before Van Halen came to be. Names of these bands include The Broken Combs, The Space Brothers, The Trojan Rubber Company. In 1972, Alex and Eddie formed Mammoth with Mark Stone on bass, the band rented David Lee Roths PA system for their shows. Soon after, Edward became tired of singing lead vocals, later, in 1974, since the name Mammoth was already taken by another band, the name was changed to Van Halen, and Stone was replaced by Michael Anthony. Roth has claimed that it was his idea to rename the band Van Halen, in addition to his musical duties at this time, Alex handled managerial duties, such as booking gigs, etc. for the band. Their 1978 self-titled debut album Van Halen was released to much fanfare, although the term brown sound is generally associated with Eddies guitar, it was actually coined by Alex to refer to the sound of his snare drum
21.
Michael Anthony (musician)
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Michael Anthony Sobolewski, known professionally as Michael Anthony, is an American musician who is currently the bass player in the rock supergroup Chickenfoot. Anthony is best known as the bass player for the hard rock band Van Halen. He also has a signature Yamaha bass-guitar series, in total, Anthony is known to have in excess of 150 bass guitars. In addition to his career with Van Halen and other acts, Anthony markets a line of hot sauces. While Anthony was a catcher in baseball, he also competed on the Dana Junior High School track team. He took an interest in guitar as a teenager, but picked up the bass instead since most of his friends already played guitar or drums. Anthonys friend Mike Hershey gave him a Fender Mustang electric guitar that Anthony converted by removing the two highest strings and playing it as a bass guitar, eventually, his father bought him a Victoria copy of a Fender Precision Bass and a Gibson amplifier. Anthony mostly modeled his bass playing after Jack Bruce of Cream and his first band was called Povertys Children. Other bands he played in included Black Opal, Balls, although Anthony is naturally left-handed, he plays right-handed. Snake, a group featuring Anthony on lead vocals and bass guitar, was the last band in which Anthony played before joining Van Halen. Snake played covers of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Foghat and they played several of the same types of gigs as did the Van Halen brothers band Mammoth. Snake even once opened for Mammoth at a show at Pasadena High School, mammoths PA failed that night, so Anthony lent them Snakes PA. While attending Pasadena City College, Anthony pursued a degree in music, Eddie Van Halen also took classes there and they would often see each other on campus. During this time, bass player Mark Stone parted ways with Mammoth, Anthony was impressed by their skill during subsequent jam sessions even though he had seen the brothers play before. After the session, the Van Halen brothers asked Anthony to join their band, one story claims that he said he had to think about it and consulted Snake guitarist Tony Caggiano who advised Anthony to join Van Halen. However, according to Michael Anthonys web site, when asked if he wanted to join Mammoth and this has become the accepted version of events. In 1974, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Anthony became known as Van Halen and they were signed to Warner Brothers in 1977 and released their self-titled debut album on February 8,1978. The band released a total of ten albums from 1978–1995
22.
A Different Kind of Truth
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A Different Kind of Truth is the twelfth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen. Released on February 7,2012, by Interscope Records, the record is Van Halens first full-length album of material with former lead singer David Lee Roth since 1984. Likewise, it is Van Halens first studio album since 1998s Van Halen III and it is the first to feature Eddie Van Halens son Wolfgang on bass guitar, replacing Michael Anthony, who had played bass on all of Van Halens previous albums. A Different Kind of Truth was recorded at Henson Recording Studios and Eddie Van Halens own 5150 Studios, seven of the albums thirteen songs are musically re-worked and lyrically re-written songs that had been demoed in the late-1970s/early 1980s, but never officially released. The album received positive reviews upon release, with several writers referring to it as a return to form and it was also a commercial success, debuting in the top ten on numerous record charts. It debuted at No.2 on the Billboard 200 and, the album was promoted with an arena tour. In 2007, Van Halen reunited with original lead singer David Lee Roth – who had left the band in April 1985, at the peak of their global popularity – for a North American Tour. The reunion tour consisted of 74 shows from September 2007 to June 2008, after Wolfgang became enthusiastic about recording a new Van Halen album, Eddies opinion changed, Were doing this for us. Eddie, Wolfgang and Alex Van Halen began jam sessions at the formers 5150 Studios three months after the tours completion, during this time, Wolfgang discovered rough, unreleased demos from the bands archives. After listening to these and believing they had potential, he brought them to Alex and Eddie to rework, the first of these tracks, Shes the Woman, was completed by August 2009. It had originally been demoed by the band in the mid-1970s, Roth decided to join the project after hearing this song, as well as two other reworked tracks, Lets Get Rockin – later renamed Outta Space – and Bullethead. That was the plan, but the deeper we dug. At the same time I was writing new songs, dave got very excited about that. We ended up recording demos for 35 songs, after deliberating over whether to self-produce the album or choose a producer from a list that included Rick Rubin and Pat Leonard, Roth suggested John Shanks. Shanks liked the first three songs, and agreed to produce the album, working alongside Wolfgang to pick the demos that would be developed into the albums tracks. While all of Van Halens albums since 1984 had been produced inside 5150, by mid-January 2011, the band had moved into Henson Studios with Shanks, staff engineer Martin Cooke, and engineer Paul David Hager. The band would record music for 12 hours a day, five days a week, the instrumental tracks were completed within three weeks. By the end of March 2011, the returned to finish the record at 5150 with engineer Ross Hogarth
23.
Runnin' with the Devil
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Runnin with the Devil is the second single from Van Halens 1978 eponymous debut album. The song lyrics were inspired by the Ohio Players song Runnin from the Devil, in 2009 it was named the 9th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. The song begins with a collection of car horns sounding, the horns were taken from the band’s own cars and mounted in a box and powered by two car batteries, with a foot switch. Producer Ted Templemans slowed the horns down before adding them to the track and this same idea was first used during the band’s club sets and appeared on the Gene Simmons-recorded demo of the song, as well as the song House of Pain which preceded it on the demo. A four-measure guitar solo is played after the second and third chorus, the songs lyrics have often been misinterpreted as being satanic, yet the members have never revealed the full meaning of the song. It is usually interpreted as being about the life of a young band. The songs verses deal with an experience, including learning that a simple lifestyle is not as simple as it appears. The lyrics Runnin with the devil are usually interpreted as being a reference to freedom, in the song freedom is portrayed as a lack of social ties and living in the present. The songs meaning has also interpreted as being an attempt to convince a person that the theme of a simple life is not wrong as it appears. Therefore, the lyrics of Runnin with the devil would not be serious, david Lee Roth – lead vocals Eddie Van Halen – guitar, backing vocals Michael Anthony – bass, backing vocals Alex Van Halen – drums Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
24.
Van Halen (album)
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Van Halen is the self-titled debut studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen. Released on February 10,1978, the peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200. The album became widely recognized as the popularity grew, selling more than ten million copies in the United States by 1999. In 1976, Van Halen started recording demos for their first studio album, although Van Halen recorded a demo in 1976 with Gene Simmons, no labels discovered these recordings until the following year. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen was not convinced of the quality of the material because they could not record the recordings with their own equipment. Simmons had to leave to tour with Kiss after recording the demos, after recording the demos, Van Halen was offered several concerts. At a sold-out show in their hometown, Pasadena, the future manager, Marshall Berle. He and musical entrepreneur Kim Fowley paired them with rock band Venus. After being well received by Berle at Whisky a Go Go, Ostin and Templeman were impressed with the bands performance at the Starwood, and Van Halen proceeded to sign a contract with Warner Bros. The recordings of their debut album began in October 1977 and lasted three weeks. Together with producer Ted Templeman, the album was recorded live. Runnin with the Devil, Jamies Cryin and Ice Cream Man contain guitar overdubs, overall, the album cost approximately $40,000 to produce. The subsequent tour began with the opening for Journey, along with Montrose. Later it was with Black Sabbath again by United States and Europe, the cover photos for Van Halen were taken at the Whisky a Go Go, a Los Angeles club at which Van Halen often performed during the mid-1970s. The guitar pictured on the cover of the album is Eddie Van Halens famous Frankenstrat Guitar, a Fender prototype replica of which is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution. In the United States, Van Halen reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, their debut single, a cover of The Kinks You Really Got Me, spent three weeks on the chart, peaking at number 36. Soon after its February 1978 release, Van Halen became regarded by fans and critics as one of rock and rolls greatest debut albums, however, its initial critical reception was mostly negative. In 1978, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a review, writing
25.
Sammy Hagar
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Sammy Hagar, also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, musician and entrepreneur. Hagar came to prominence in the 1970s with the rock band Montrose. He afterwards launched a solo career, scoring an enduring hit in 1984 with I Cant Drive 55. He enjoyed huge success when he replaced David Lee Roth as the lead singer of Van Halen in 1985. He returned to the band for a 2-year reunion from 2003 to 2005, on March 12,2007, Hagar was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen. His musical style consists of hard rock and heavy metal. Also a businessman, he founded the Cabo Wabo Tequila brand and restaurant chain and his current musical projects include being the lead singer of Chickenfoot and The Circle. Samuel Hagar was named after his grandfather, Sam Roy. Hagar was born in Salinas, California, but his family moved to Fontana. Sammy Hagar graduated from Fontana High School, as a teenager, Hagar became interested in the burgeoning Southern California music scene. He fronted his first band, the Fabulous Castilles, when he was twenty. As part of a duo known as Samson & Hagar, backed by the Peppermint Trolley Company, he released a 7 single on Ranwood Records with the tracks Reach Out to Find Me and that same year, Hagar joined the Johnny Fortune Band as a vocalist and rhythm guitarist. Hagar was also a member of a string of other bands including Big Bang, Skinny, Dustcloud, Cotton, Jimmy. He next became a member of the Justice Brothers, along with guitarist Bob Anglin, keyboardist Al Shane, bassist Jeff Nicholson, the Justice Brothers were the house band at a bar called The Nightclub in San Bernardino, California, before they relocated to San Francisco. Hagars first major success came with the group Montrose, on their debut and second albums, after conflicts during a European tour with the bands founder, Ronnie Montrose, Hagar quit the group. Bassist Bill Church and drummer Denny Carmassi eventually played in Hagars backing band, after the album Paper Money, Hagar began his solo career. In the mid-1970s, Hagar started a recording and touring career to increasing success. However, Hagar felt that Carter did not play to his strengths as a heavy-metal guy, Hagar was scheduled to open for Boston in San Bernardino, California, during their 1979 world tour
26.
Gary Cherone
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Gary Francis Caine Cherone is an American rock singer and songwriter. In recent years he has released solo recordings, in 2007, he reunited with Extreme. The bands latest album Saudades de Rock was released on August 12,2008, born Gary Francis Caine Cherone, he grew up in Malden, Massachusetts and attended Malden High School, the third of five brothers and the younger of fraternal twin Greg Cherone. Raised in a middle-class Catholic family, Cherone was quiet, creative, as a youth, he dreamed of a career as a basketball player until he suffered a serious knee injury. In 1979 Cherone and drummer friend Paul Geary along with guitarist Matt McKay, formed a band called Adrenalin. In 1981, they changed the name to The Dream. The Dreams video for Mutha, Dont Wanna Go to School Today, won their contest, incidentally, both Cherone and Summer had once had aspirations of playing basketball as a career. The name Extreme came from a play on the words Ex-Dream, by the late 1980s, the group had attracted a large regional following, in 1987, the band signed with A&M Records, which released their self-titled debut album in 1989. The albums lyrical content, mostly written by Cherone, was based on the concept of a fictional young boy named Francis and his observations of a decadent, corrupt. Although well received by the world in the press, initial sales. The song was picked up by radio and became a huge smash. Extreme II, Pornograffiti was eventually certified platinum and remains a notable entry in the genre. Also in 1991, Extreme toured in support of David Lee Roth, Cherones career came full circle in April 1992 when he performed Hammer to Fall onstage with the three surviving members of Queen at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium. Later that year, Extreme released III Sides To Every Story and this album marked the pinnacle of the bands creative ability as a whole. As the decade progressed, the popularity of grunge brought about a sea of change in the pop music industry, causing 80s rock. In response, Extremes 1995 recording, Waiting for the Punchline, was a stripped-down, after the supporting tour, Bettencourt became dissatisfied and left the group to launch a solo career. Extreme officially folded almost immediately afterward, in 1996, rock band, Van Halen, had a falling out with their second lead singer, Sammy Hagar, who had been with the band since 1985. After a failed attempt with original lead vocalist David Lee Roth
27.
The Best of Both Worlds (Van Halen album)
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The Best of Both Worlds is the second greatest hits album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on July 20,2004 on Warner Bros. The compilation features material recorded with lead vocalists David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, prior to The Best of Both Worlds release, Hagar reunited with Van Halen, and the band subsequently recorded three new tracks to include on the release. Debuting at #3 in the US, the album was followed by a reunion tour. It is the last Van Halen album overall to feature contributions from Michael Anthony, the album was released in promotion of the new reunion tour featuring Hagar returning as lead singer. The three new songs were performed live at various times. Michael Anthony did not play guitar for the three new songs, although he did provide backing vocals for them. Anthony was not a band member at that point and the songs were already recorded before he rejoined. The bass guitar on the new songs was played by Eddie Van Halen, notes Track 10 on disc two combines the instrumental Strung Out with Not Enough, although it is shown on the album track list as simply Not Enough. Both songs were listed as tracks on the Balance album
28.
Eruption (instrumental)
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Eruption is an instrumental rock guitar solo performed by Eddie Van Halen. It is widely considered one of the greatest guitar solos of all time and it segues into You Really Got Me on the album Van Halen, and the two songs are often played together by radio stations. The song was released as the b-side to the Runnin with the Devil single. Eruption starts with a short accompanied intro with Alex Van Halen on drums, the highlight of the solo is the use of two-handed tapping. Eruption was played on the Frankenstrat, with a MXR Phase 90, an Echoplex, a Univox echo unit, the Sunset Sound studio reverb room was also used to add reverb. The Frankenstrat was tuned down a half-step, Eruption begins in the key of A flat and ends on an E flat note that is a twelfth fret, 6th string harmonic processed through a Univox EC-80 echo unit. The Eruption introduction is based on the Let Me Swim introduction by Cactus, after the intro, an E-flat major quotation of the Etude No.2 by Rodolphe Kreutzer is heard. The piece that would later be named Eruption had existed as part of Van Halens stage act at least as far back as 1976, Eruption popularized the tapping trend of the 80s. Although one-handed tapping had been previously done by many guitarists, Eruption introduced two-handed tapping to the popular rock audience. Previously, Baroque-like tapping had been recorded by Steve Hackett of Genesis in 1971/1972, Eddie recalled I didnt even play it right. Theres a mistake at the top end of it, to this day, whenever I hear it, I always think, Man, I couldve played it better. Spanish Fly, a guitar solo on Van Halen II, can be viewed as a nylon-string version of Eruption. Similarly, it was suggested by Templeman for inclusion on the album after he heard Eddie Van Halen playing a classical guitar, in March 2005, Q magazine placed Eruption at number 29 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. Eruption has been named the 2nd greatest guitar solo by Guitar World magazine, Eddie Van Halen - electric guitar Alex Van Halen - drums Eruption is also featured in Guitar Hero, Van Halen and is considered as one of the most difficult pieces in the game. Eruption is also used in excerpts for the video for the Zombiegeddon house in Universal Orlandos Halloween Horror Nights 20. In the 2015 film Minions, Stuart plays this song after receiving an electric guitar presented by Queen Elizabeth II, Eddie Van Halen Guitar Player 1980 Interview Eddie Van Halen Eruption Live at New Haven 1986 on YouTube
29.
Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love
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Aint Talkin Bout Love is a single by Van Halen, from their 1978 eponymous debut album. When Eddie Van Halen originally wrote the song a year before the album was released, Eddie would also say it was supposed to be a punk rock parody, a stupid thing to us, just two chords. It didn’t end up sounding punk, but that was the intention, the guitar solo was doubled in overdubs with an electric sitar. This song is one of the few David Lee Roth-era songs that onetime replacement Sammy Hagar was willing to sing in concert when he joined the band in the mid-80s. The song has featured in the South Park episode Ginger Cow and The Sopranos episode Fortunate Son. The song was used by the National Hockey Leagues Philadelphia Flyers as their goal song. The song has appeared as a track in music game Guitar Hero Van Halen
30.
Dance the Night Away (Van Halen song)
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Dance the Night Away was Van Halens first top 20 U. S. hit, peaking at #15, and the second song from their 1979 album Van Halen II. The band members conceived the song during the sessions while they were standing in a circle humming to each other. It was inspired by Fleetwood Macs Go Your Own Way, Eddie Van Halen purposely left a guitar solo out of the final version of the song, replacing it instead with a riff of tap harmonics. David Lee Roth originally wanted to call the song Dance Lolita Dance, but Eddie Van Halen convinced him that Dance the Night Away was more suitable and this was also mentioned at a 2006 performance in Detroit, Michigan. It was covered in 2010 by Pat Monahan on Santanas album Guitar Heaven, in 2015, the song was covered and performed by Vocal Adrenaline, on the premiere episode, Loser Like Me, of the sixth season of Glee. The song was not performed live during the Sammy Hagar era and it has been played live on every tour since the 2007 reunion with Roth, and a live version is included on the album Tokyo Dome Live in Concert. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics Santana
31.
Van Halen II
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Van Halen II is the second studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on March 23,1979. It peaked at number 6 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the singles Dance the Night Away, to date, it has sold over five million copies in the United States. Critical reaction to the album has been positive as well, with the The Rolling Stone Album Guide praising the feel-good, recording of the album took place less than a year after the release of the bands eponymous debut album, the process was completed in three weeks. In the bands licensed game, Guitar Hero, Van Halen, four of the ten tracks of this album are available for play, Dance the Night Away, Somebody Get Me a Doctor, Spanish Fly and Beautiful Girls. The black-and-yellow guitar on the back of the album is buried with Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, Eddie Van Halen placed it in his casket at his funeral because Darrell had said it was his favorite. However, Eddie himself stated in interviews that the guitar itself was not actually used on the Van Halen II album, as it had only been completed just in time for the photo shoots for the album. David Lee Roth is shown in a cast in the liner notes. In the liner notes, The Sheraton Inn of Madison, Wisconsin is thanked, on Van Halens first tour, they stayed at the hotel and destroyed the 7th floor, having fire extinguisher fights in the hallways and throwing televisions out windows. They blamed the incidents on their tour-mates at the time, Journey, also stating, the LP retains a numbing live feel. In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic rates Van Halen II4 stars out of 5. He notes the album is virtually a copy of their 1978 debut, though goes on to say it is lighter and funnier than the debut. Erlewine praises Eddies phenomenal gift and Roths knowing shuck and jive and it reached #6 on the Billboard 200 charts and #23 on the UK charts. Van Halen II was certified 5× Platinum in 2004, approximately 5.7 million records have been sold in the US as of 2004. In 2000, Van Halen II was remastered and re-released, all tracks written by Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth, except where noted
32.
And the Cradle Will Rock...
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And the Cradle Will Rock. is a song written and performed by Van Halen. It appears on their 1980 album Women and Children First and it was one of two singles from the album, the other is the B-side Everybody Wants Some. It is also the first song released by the band featured the keyboard playing of Eddie Van Halen. The song begins with sounds like a guitar, but is, in fact. During live performances on the 1980 tour, Michael Anthony would play the keyboards, for some of the shows on the 2007-2008 Van Halen tour David Lee Roth said, Have you seen Wolfies grades. Instead of the recordings Have you seen juniors grades, line, Wolfie referring to Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddies son and bassist for the band since 2006. Eric Carr of Kiss played And the Cradle Will Rock, along with Van Halens cover of You Really Got Me as part of his audition tape, which successfully led to his becoming the new drummer for Kiss
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Unchained (song)
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Unchained is a song from Van Halens fourth album, Fair Warning. Vocalist David Lee Roths working title for the song was Hit the Ground Running, the song features prominent use of the MXR M-117 flanger, which became a popular sound and spurred sales of the pedal. A preset for the flanger was also included on the EVH Flanger MXR pedal and it uses a drop-C♯ tuning with suspended fourth chords interspersed. The song is notable for being producer Ted Templemans only vocal contribution to the band when he says Come on, Dave, during the interlude of the song. Comedian Jay Mohr has used the song as an intro for both his Mohr Stories podcast and his Fox Sports Radio show, Jay Mohr Sports
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Fair Warning (Van Halen album)
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Fair Warning is the fourth studio album by American rock band Van Halen. Released on April 29,1981, it more than two million copies, but was still the bands slowest-selling album of the David Lee Roth era. Despite the albums disappointing sales, Fair Warning was met with mostly positive reviews from critics. The album was listed by Esquire as one of the 75 Albums Every Man Should Own, the cover artwork features a detail from The Maze, a painting by Canadian artist William Kurelek which depicts his tortured youth. Also on the wall is a lyric from the opening song. The Village Voices Robert Christgau rated Fair Warning a B-, signifying a competent or mildly interesting record that will feature at least three worthwhile cuts. He stated that it featured not just Eddies latest sound effects, but a few good jokes along with the mean ones and he also explained that at times Eddie could even be said to play an expressive – lyrical. Of course, what hes expressing is hard to say, technocracy putting a patina on cynicism. A retrospective review by AllMusics Stephen Thomas Erlewine found the album fairly positive and he went on to say that dull it is not and Fair Warning contains some of the fiercest, hardest music that Van Halen ever made. Theres little question that Eddie Van Halen won whatever internal skirmishes they had, even with the lack of a single dedicated instrumental showcase. In the video game, Guitar Hero, Van Halen, four of the nine tracks of Fair Warning are available for play, Mean Street, Hear About It Later, Unchained and So This Is Love. All tracks written by Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth
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Jump (Van Halen song)
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Jump is a song by American hard rock band Van Halen. It was released in December 1983 as the single from their album 1984. It is Van Halens most successful single to date reaching number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song differs from earlier Van Halen songs in that it is driven by a synth line, although the song does contain a guitar solo. David Lee Roth dedicated the song to martial artist Benny Urquidez, the synth line was written around 1981 by Eddie Van Halen but it was refused by the other members of the band. In 1983, producer Ted Templeman asked Roth to take a listen to the song idea. Riding around in the back of his 1951 Mercury, with band roadie Larry Hostler driving, Roth listened repeatedly to the song. To come up with a lyric for it, he remembered seeing a news report the night before about a man who was threatening to commit suicide by jumping off of a high building. Roth thought that one of the onlookers of such a scene would probably shout go ahead, Roth bounced this suggestion off Hostler who agreed it was good. Instead of being about a suicide, the words were written as an invitation to love. Roth later told Musician magazine that Hostler was probably the most responsible for how it came out and this stylistic change was further cemented when it seemed to create severe tensions between Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth. This conflict eventually ended in Roths departure from the band, in the 1995 Rolling Stone cover story on/interview with Eddie Van Halen the circumstances surrounding Roths leaving are discussed. He said that the first thing I did up here was Jump, I said take it or leave it, I was getting sick of their ideas of what was commercial. At first Crazy from the Heat was great because Roth laid off me a bit, little did I know he was testing the waters. Then he called me up and asked me to go to his house and he had some deal that fell through. But at the time I was depressed, I cried, then I called my brother and told him the guy quit. Nevertheless, Roth and Templeman did work on Jump at Eddies disputed new studio, with Roth providing the lyrics, Ted Templeman recalls that Jump was recorded at Eds studio. Donn and Ed put the track down alone in the middle of the night and we recut it once in one take for sonic reasons
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1984 (Van Halen album)
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1984 is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on January 9,1984. This album and their debut are Van Halens bestselling albums, each having more than 10 million copies. 1984 was the last Van Halen album to lead singer David Lee Roth until 2012s A Different Kind of Truth. Roth left the band in 1985 due to increasing creative differences,1984 was well received by music critics. Rolling Stone ranked the album number 81 on its list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s, commercially, the album went on to reach number two on the Billboard 200 album chart and remained there for five weeks, behind Michael Jacksons Thriller. 1984 produced four singles, including Jump, Van Halens only number one single on the Billboard Hot 100, the top-20 hits Panama and Ill Wait, the album was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1999. Following the groups 1982 album, Diver Down, Eddie Van Halen was dissatisfied by the concessions he had made to Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth, both discouraged Eddie from making keyboards a prominent instrument in the bands music. In 1983, Eddie built his own studio in his backyard, at 5150, Eddie composed Van Halens follow-up to Diver Down—without as much perceived interference from Roth or Templeman. The result was a compromise between the two factions in the band—a mixture of keyboard-heavy songs, and the intense rock for which the band had become known. In Rolling Stones retrospective review of 1984 in its 100 Best Albums of the Eighties list, producer Ted Templeman said, at the time, Eddie was in the process of building his own studio with Donn Landee, the bands longtime engineer. While boards and tape machines were being installed, the guitarist began fiddling around on synthesizers to pass the time, there were no presets, says Templeman. He would just twist off until it sounded right, the albums original release credits all songs to Edward Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth. The labeling on the UK single release for Ill Wait credited Michael McDonald as a co-writer, the ASCAP entry for Ill Wait lists Michael McDonald as co-writer with Roth and the Van Halens. After the release of Best Of – Volume I, Van Halen renegotiated their royalties with their label Warner Bros, Anthony stated in 2012 he has no plans to dispute the songwriting credits removal. The iconic cover was created by graphic artist Margo Nahas and it was not specifically commissioned, Nahas had been asked to create a cover that featured four chrome women dancing, but declined due to the creative difficulties. Her husband brought her portfolio to the band anyway, and from that material they chose the painting of a putto stealing cigarettes that was ultimately used. The model was Carter Helm, who was the child of one of Nahas best friends, the cover was censored in the UK at the time of the albums release. It featured a sticker that obscured the cigarette in the puttos hand, the back cover features all four band members individually with 1984 in a green futuristic font
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