10 Legendary Rock Songs That Feature Weird Instruments

10. Big Bad Bill - Van Halen

For all of the hair metal bands that they spawned, Van Halen always seemed to be more on the rock and roll side of the spectrum. Though the intensity was always dialed up to 10 every time they took to the stage, these were the kind of guys that were looking to give you one big party every time they kicked into one of their classic songs. When they needed one more album on Diver Down though, they decided to keep it in the family for some of the covers.

Aside from their favorite artists like the Kinks and Roy Orbison, Big Bad Bill is the kind of old jazz standard that seems tailor made for David Lee Roth's voice, telling the story of a man named Bill getting put in check by his wife after being the most dangerous man in town. And right where you think a guitar solo would be, we actually have a clarinet added into the mix that was played by Alex and Eddie's father in the studio.

Seeing how this is supposed to be a kind of throwback, the solo works surprisingly well for the Van Halen formula, giving a bit of a ragtime feel to the rest of the song. Since this was the album that also has a version of Happy Trails to close out everything, this song has the kind of spirit of the boys messing around in the studio and just seeing what happens. The record itself may have been made out of obligation, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have some fun along the way as well.