Songoftheday 10/4/14 - Oh here it comes again that funny feelin again, winding me up inside every time we touch...

Van Halen - "Why Can't This Be Love"
from the album 5150 (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's Song of the Day is by the heavy metal band Van Halen, who were last seen with their big breakthrough album 1984, which landed them a #1 pop hit with "Jump" and two top-20 follow-ups with "'I'll Wait" and "Panama". However, problems between lead singer David Lee Roth, who had already gone on to release an EP of solo material and scored a couple of top-20 pop hits, and guitarist Eddie Van Halen caused Roth to exit the band after their tour. Eddie recruited rock singer and guitarist Sammy Hagar to take over Roth's place. Hagar, who had been successful as a solo artist after leaving his former band Montrose, had already racked up three top-40 pop hits of his own, including "Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy", which made it to #13 back in 1983.

The thing is, Sammy is a totally different animal than 'Diamond Dave'. As Roth was wild in the goofy yet somehow sexual kind of way, Hagar was more of an aggressive frat-boy meets blue collar kind of rocker. That allowed Eddie to fine tune his synth-rock sound that he experimented on 1984, and the result of that is the first single "Why Can't This Be Love". Driven by the keyboard riff rather than the lead guitar, the single moved them even further into the pop realm, though Sammy's straightforward yet gruff voice still got them respect at rock radio, helped by Foreigner's Mick Jones, who aided in the production of the album..

"Why Can't This Be Love" became Van Halen's second top-10 pop hit in May of 1986, while scoring the act its third #1 single on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. Surprisingly, the 5150 album did what none of the Roth-led albums could: it went to #1 on the albums chart. Internationally, the single went top-10 in Britain (their second after "Jump"), Ireland, and Australian and top-20 in Canada.

You know, as a teenager I have to confess that I like the Van Hagar version of the band better (the synth freak that I was). But hey, even now this song's chunky psuedo-funk still charms me.

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Here's "Van Hagar" on their first tour together...

...next up on their OU812 tour in 1989..

Fast forward ahead to their 1995 show, where (hunky) bassist Michael Anthony and Eddie sang part of the lead..

...and finally from their 2004 tour in New Jersey..


Up tomorrow:Detroit rockers brace for a patriotic weather pattern.