10 Hard Rock Albums With Only One Good Song
2. Van Halen III - Van Halen
In the mid-80's, Van Halen had done the impossible by replacing charismatic vocalist David Lee Roth with ease. Thanks to equally powerful vocalist Sammy Hagar, the band soldiered on through the 80's and into the 90's with hits like "Right Now" and "Dreams." Once Sammy left, fate was not as kind to the Van Halen brothers.
Replacing Hagar seemed easy enough for the band, with them having replaced an icon before. However, their replacement in Extreme frontman Gary Cherone left many fans feeling burned. The one record with Cherone, Van Halen III, stands at the very bottom of most fans' Van Halen rankings, with spotty arrangements and Cherone doing a rather unflattering Hagar impersonation on many cuts.
At the same time, "Without You" is actually one of the better songs from this era, with Eddie Van Halen displaying some impressive guitar effects along with some dabblings with the funkier sides of rock. However, this song shares a theme with the rest of the tunes in that it's disjointed, with almost no coherent arrangement to be found across the track's near 7 minutes. With all the monotonous guitar noodlings that were to come, "Without You" is by far the diamond in the rough from the dark times of Van Halen.