by Patrick Sills

Created on: July 15, 2009   Last Updated: July 14, 2010

There is no question that in the case of Van Halen's band lineups, Sammy Hagar was the better lead singer over David Lee Roth. This poses a paradox, however. Hagar's vocal range was (and still is) far more polished, but as a collective unit, the music itself was much better when David Lee Roth was the frontman. Incidentally, Van Halen made one album with former Extreme vocalist Gary Cherrone, but that is best forgotten.

Nevertheless, the Hagar/Roth debate becomes a matter of personal taste. Van Halen certainly enjoyed greater commercial success with Sammy Hagar. However, when Hagar assumed the role of lead vocalist, the band's overall musical format devolved from hard, straight-ahead rock and roll into rather sappy, middle-of-the-road ballads that were overproduced with keyboards. Eddie Van Halen was and still remains one of the best rock guitarists out there, and during the "Van Hagar" era of 1985-1995, his musical genius was overshadowed by too many keyboards. The power trio format of one guitar, bass, and drums with or without a separate frontman serves as the perfect hard rock lineup. Once keyboards are added into the equation, the music tends to lose its punch; which is exactly what happened when Van Halen switched singers.

When Van Halen dumped David Lee Roth and became more commercialized in the process, it was very similar to the situation in which Grand Funk Railroad, another great hard rock band that was popular some 10 years earlier, added a keyboardist and followed the same path. Likewise, Grand Funk Railroad enjoyed more conventional airplay, but at the same time their music experienced a nosedive in quality.

With that said; however, Sammy Hagar remains as one of the best vocalists in rock today. At 63, he still sounds as he did way back in his years with Ronnie Montrose. This frankly cannot be said for some of his counterparts, such as Roger Daltrey or Paul McCartney, two other well-known sixtysomethings who can no longer hit the high notes. To be a bit fair here, Daltrey and McCartney have a few years on Hagar, but not many.

One of Sammy Hagar's recent projects is a supergroup known as Chickenfoot. He fronts Joe Satriani, ex-Van Halen bassist Micheal Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. The band is phenomenal and executes hard-driving rock flawlessly. The band's debut effort of 2009; simply titled Chickenfoot, will kick you where the sun doesn't shine.

In the meantime,Van Halen appears to be stuck in an indefinite holding pattern. They toured with David Lee Roth again in 2007 and 2008, but have since slipped into relative obscurity. Diamond Dave may not be as technically proficient as the Red Rocker, but it would still be nice to see Eddie, his son Wolfgang, brother Alex, and Dave get into the studio and produce some more of the hard-driving rock and roll that made them a household name.

Learn more about this author, Patrick Sills.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.