10 Rock Bands That Only Have One Bad Album
5. Van Halen
Bad Album: Van Halen III
After years of hindsight, it's about time that the sparring sessions of David Lee Roth-Van Halen and Sammy Hagar-Van Halen be put to rest. For as many people like to rag on Hagar for turning these hair metal giants into a pop act, there's really nothing that could stop the raw talent on display, with 5150 holding up just as well as 1984 as years go by. However, most people don't like to acknowledge that Van Halen actually did have a third singer.
Once coming together to contribute songs to a greatest hits package, Hagar abruptly quit the band, leaving Eddie to find a replacement in Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone. While not exactly a bad choice at the outset, Van Halen III is one of the most high-profile screw ups in rock history, as Cherone just tries (and fails) to sound like Sammy throughout most of the tracks.
Compared to the more punchy titles that you would find with either Roth or Hagar, these songs also don't seem to have any sort of structure, with most of them feeling like random riffs thrown together without any concern for the listener's...well...enjoyment. Though VH would recover from hard times on the sort-of reunion album A Different Kind of Truth, this was not the note that anyone would have wanted to go out on.