10 Rock Bands That Saved Their Careers With One Album

For some Van Halen purists, the minute that the band took a sharp decline in quality was the moment that David Lee Roth left the group. Roth had always been the good time spirit of the band, and half of the show pretty much lived and died on the kind of charisma he could bring across. Him leaving after the album 1984 should have been a death blow to any other band, but Van Halen wasn't built that way.

Though drafting in Sammy Hagar may have been a bit of an odd choice at the time, he was more than up to the challenge of filling Roth's shoes on 5150. Coming off of an album like 1984, this was definitely a different look for the band, doubling down on the keyboard sounds of the last record with a singer that was not nearly as gruff as Dave's voice. Then again, having someone like Sammy in the band was actually a blessing in disguise, having a much broader range than Roth that was much more suited to the musical side of what Eddie brought to the table.

Since Hagar also had a hand in the style and structure of the songs, Van Hagar practically sounds like its own unique project for most of this record, from making a keyboard actually sound badass on Why Can't This Be Love to finding out that Van Halen can perform ballads on Love Walks In. You can call this version of the group a dad band all you want, but if the middle aged era of rock sounds this kickass, it's more than worth the trade.