Every Van Halen Music Video Ranked

Like many long-running bands, Van Halen’s method to music movies modified dramatically over time.

After releasing only a handful of low-budget lip-synced or dwell movies of their pre-MTV years, the group dove into the format headfirst and really efficiently with extra expansive and humor-laced clips for songs equivalent to “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher.”

When unique singer David Lee Roth left and took his knack for outlandish movies with him, the group scaled down their comedic ambitions and launched extra typical movies, with the notable exception of 1992’s award-winning “Right Now.”

Of course, “conventional” is a relative time period, and Van Halen’s post-Roth movies nonetheless embody greater than their justifiable share of jail fights, airplane stunts, ice castles and energy drills.

Here’s our rating of each Van Halen music video.

34. “Can’t Stop Lovin’ You”
From: Balance (1995)

The second single from Van Halen’s final album with Sammy Hagar is soggy Hallmark card set to among the most domesticated music the band ever launched. Apart from the infant monkey, the video can also be fairly lame.

33. “Fire in the Hole”
From: Van Halen III (1998)

Obviously, Van Halen had been at a profession low level right here. But they nonetheless deserved higher than to play second fiddle to scenes from the fourth Lethal Weapon film in their very own video.

32. “Dreams” (Blue Angels Version)
From: 5150 (1986)

Van Halen nearly utterly eschewed music movies for his or her first post-David Lee Roth album, stating a need to maintain the concentrate on the music and additional separating themselves from their former frontman’s comedic picture. The solely video launched from 5150 was “Dreams,” a collaboration with the U.S. Navy’s elite Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron. While their aerial stunts are very spectacular, with out a supporting narrative past the music’s “higher and higher” lyric, the video appears to be like extra like one thing that must be taking part in in a recruitment workplace.

31. “Amsterdam”
From: Balance (1995)

Born in Amsterdam, Eddie Van Halen wasn’t a fan of the sophomoric lyrics for this music, apparently having hoped Sammy Hagar can be impressed to jot down extra than simply “oh wow look! Legal weed and prostitution.” But the singer would not budge, and the video comes off like former frat boys attempting to relive their wild years.

30. “Top of the World”
From: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)

It’s not that there is something precisely incorrect with this video. The music’s referred to as “Top of the World” so that you get all types of archival area exploration movies, cool, that is smart. But the colour results and the continually altering cut up frames are fairly dated and had been all the time greater than a bit distracting.

29. “Dreams” (Live Version)
28. “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
From: Live: Right Here, Right Now (1993)

Logically sufficient, Van Halen sought to advertise their first-ever dwell album by displaying what they may do as a dwell band, releasing two movies that includes brand-new performances which can be completely different from those featured on Live: Right Here Right Now. The first finds them taking part in the 5150 single “Dreams” throughout a particular membership present, within the second they deal with the Who traditional “Won’t Get Fooled Again” dwell within the studio. Alex Van Halen’s mustache is much and away the star of each performances.

27. “Not Enough”
From: Balance (1995)

No scorching takes available right here: This is a superbly beautiful, nicely-shot video for certainly one of Van Halen’s extra underrated ballads.

26. “Humans Being”
From: Twister Soundtrack (1996)

Sammy Hagar and the Van Halen brothers fought like cats and canines throughout the recording of this music, and the 2 sides parted methods shortly thereafter. Both the music and the storm-themed video channel that anger effectively – take a look at Sammy and Eddie screaming in one another’s faces across the 1:45 mark. The largest disgrace is that the video cuts out the primary half of Van Halen’s brilliantly composed guitar solo.

25. “Feels So Good”
From: OU812 (1988)

With its fixed scrolling, the “Feels So Good” video nearly feels extra like an previous pc screensaver. But the band’s personalities shine by means of properly as they gamely mime some of the underappreciated songs of the Van Hagar period.

24. “Tattoo”
23. “She’s the Woman”
From: A Different Kind of Truth (2012)

Nearly three a long time after 1984, Roth returned to Van Halen for brand-new studio album. But anyone anticipating the band to carry again comedic, conceptual movies was in for a disappointment. The two clips launched from A Different Kind of Truth focus are strictly performance-based rehearsal studio clips, with “She’s the Woman” additionally mixing in pictures from massive and small-scale concert events. It appeared like a little bit of a missed alternative on the time, and that feeling solely obtained deeper years later when new bassist Wolfgang Van Halen additionally revealed himself to be a grasp of humorous movies.

22. “Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)”
From: Balance (1995)

Like many veteran bands, Van Halen handled the grunge revolution by slicing their hair and singing about extra severe subjects. The “Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)” video is mainly a condensed model of the 1978 Scared Straight! jail documentary, though the most important crime dedicated right here is that Eddie Van Halen’s solo is as soon as once more minimize in half.

21. “Finish What Ya Started”
From: OU812 (1988)

There’s not a lot winking self-awareness to be discovered within the cowgirl-themed video for “Finish What Ya Started” – however what did you actually anticipate from the millionth music about blue balls? The video does at the least emphasize the music’s inventive nation affect, with Eddie Van Halen sporting a plaid shirt, boots and a cowboy hat at one level.

20. “Without You”
From: Van Halen III (1998)

Van Halen spared no expense or effort whereas trying to introduce their third lead singer to the world. The band reportedly spent one million {dollars} to movie “Without You” at Sweden’s Icehotel. The visuals are suitably spectacular, however in the long run you may spend most of your time questioning simply what within the hell is up with Eddie Van Halen’s jester hat and “boxers on the outside” style selections.

19. “Runaround”
From: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)

Good concepts do not must be difficult. Here’s a gold star to whoever got here up with the thought of getting Van Halen carry out on a huge document participant for his or her “Runaround” video.

18. “So This Is Love?”
From: Fair Warning (1981)

Filmed for an Italian TV present referred to as Happy Circus, this low-budget clip for “So This Is Love” finds the band cavorting amongst big dinosaur statues. It’s a disgrace they by no means returned to movie one other one for “Baluchitherium.”

17. “Poundcake”
From: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)

Van Halen make their first tentative post-Roth step into video storytelling, though the thin-bare plot mainly includes some scantily-clad girls practically skewering one other who was peaking into their locker room. Eddie Van Halen makes far simpler use of energy instruments throughout the music’s well-known introduction, and the huge stage and lighting rigs present that some severe cash was spent right here.

16. “When It’s Love”
From: OU812 (1988)

The Sammy Hagar-fronted model of Van Halen makes their formal video debut with a easy however efficient (and really effectively lit) clip displaying the band performing what is likely to be their best-ever ballad to a crowd of two after closing time at a small membership.

15. “Jamie’s Cryin'”
14. “Runnin’ With the Devil”
13. “Eruption / You Really Got Me”
From: Van Halen (1978)

Like most ’70s bands, Van Halen’s video profession started very modestly, with three lip-synced efficiency clips that had been clearly recorded on the similar session – you may discover their wardrobe by no means modifications. But the band had honed their dwell presentation although years of membership gigs, and Roth immediately made the digital camera his greatest pal.

12. “Dance the Night Away”
From: Van Halen II (1979)

We’ll give the lone video from Van Halen’s second album a slight edge over the earlier three just because it encompasses a distinctive, dwell efficiency of their new single “Dance The Night Away.” The band additionally reveals off some spectacular four-part harmonies throughout a short pre-song backstage section.

11. “Best of Both Worlds”
From: 5150 / Live Without a Net (1986)

Less than a yr after releasing 5150, Van Halen confirmed off the chemistry and camaraderie that they had constructed with new singer Sammy Hagar on their first-ever longform live performance video, Live Without a Net. The nine-minute efficiency of “Best of Both Worlds” present how the music had rapidly develop into the centerpiece of the band’s set listing.

10. “So This Is Love?”
9. “Hear About it Later”
8. “Unchained”
From: Fair Warning (1981)

In June of 1981, Van Halen filmed dwell promotional movies for 3 songs from their Fair Warning album throughout a three-night stand in Oakland. Supposedly, the complete audio from the band’s June eleventh present was recorded, and David Lee Roth later claimed that each one three reveals had been filmed. Could we ever get a chief unique lineup Van Halen dwell album? Only time will inform, but when the outcomes are nearly as good as these three songs it’s going to be price no matter wait we now have to endure.

7. “Loss of Control”
From: Women and Children First (1980)

Paging medical doctors Roth, Van Halen, Van Halen and Anthony! This rarely-seen video from Van Halen’s third studio album finds the band donning scrubs and masks whereas performing in what has obtained to be the world’s least sanitary working room.

6. “Right Now”
From: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)

Sammy Hagar initially hated the idea for essentially the most well-known video from his time with Van Halen. “I told the director, ‘Fuck you, man. People ain’t even going to be listening to what I’m saying because they’re going to be reading these subtitles.” After getting pressured by the top of his label, Hagar unwillingly participated – he is not performing sad on the 1:50 mark or when he slams the door on the video’s finish. “Shows what I know!” the singer gleefully admitted years and a shelf filled with awards later.

5. “(Oh) Pretty Woman”
From: Diver Down (1982)

Michael Anthony, doing his greatest John Belushi samurai impression, groups up with Alex Van Halen’s Tarzan, his brother Eddie’s cowboy and David Lee Roth’s limousine-riding Napoleon to rescue a damsel in misery whereas demonstrating simply how far the band was keen to go to overcome MTV. Or, how loopy six straight years touring the world had made them, your alternative.

4. “Jump”
From: 1984 (1984)

One one hand, Van Halen’s “Jump” is only a cheaply-made rehearsal studio efficiency video. But the band was in a position to translate their onstage appeal and charisma to the music video medium completely throughout the four-minute clip, which catapulted them to super-stardom.

3. “Everybody Wants Some!!”
From: Women and Children First (1980) / Better Off Dead (1985)

OK technically this is not a Van Halen music video. But the animated dream sequence from 1985’s Better Off Dead, by which John Cusack envisions himself because the Frankenstein-style father of a hard-rocking hamburger, is likely to be the “rock at the movies” excessive level of the ’80s. “It was just so, so out there and stupid, that everybody was really worried about it,” film author and director Steve Holland recalled of the studio’s response to the scene. “But it was the highest testing thing when we went to the test audience. They thought that was the greatest thing in the whole movie.”

2. “Panama”
From: 1984 (1984)

Partially filmed in entrance of a dwell crown on Van Halen’s huge 1984 tour, the “Panama” video reveals the band’s unique lineup on the peak of their fame. But their true inventive genius is revealed in smaller moments – equivalent to when the sputtering biplane magically transforms right into a hovering, boombox-toting David Lee Roth at first of the clip.

1. “Hot for Teacher”
From: 1984 (1984)

Talk about going out on high. Classic Van Halen’s ultimate video is likely one of the most well-known and artistic clips to ever air on MTV. It finds the band teaming up with youthful variations of themselves to torment candy, candy Waldo and customarily flip their college the other way up. We additionally get a glimpse of what the long run holds for every member of the group, with David Lee Roth as in fact, a recreation present host. It’s a disgrace that this was the tip for the band’s unique lineup, however the ultimate shot of the grinning foursome taking a bow in salmon-colored tuxedos could not be a extra good farewell.