10 Underrated Hard Rock Songs Of The '80s

There's not much to come out of Van Halen's catalog that could be considered underrated. For most of the David Lee Roth era, the band could pretty much do no wrong, with almost every single album they made winning over millions of fans and inspiring legions of guitar aficionados to practice their scale runs a little bit more. That is... with the exception of Diver Down.

In the grand scheme of VH releases, this album is normally brought up as the weakest of the Roth era, but when it does shine, you get amazing cuts like Hang 'Em High. Kicking off with Eddie's guitar riff, the song is practically a Mexican Standoff style song that features one of the greatest backbeats the band has ever taken on. Eddie can certainly shred, but this song is a pure showcase for his rhythm technique, with a riff that is so rooted in the groove that it's almost hard to tell where the actual beat starts.

As opposed to the more mind-bending tapping solos on most Van Halen releases, this manic freakout by Eddie is one of his goofiest, with little slides that sound like he's trying to match Roth's personality in his playing. There have been plenty of fantastic singles to come out of Van Halen, but Hang 'Em High may be the most entertaining song the band ever released in the '80s. See... now you have one more reason to revisit Diver Down.