Happy Birthday, Alex Van Halen

Happy fifty-ninth birthday today (May 8th) to Dutch born and American drummer Alex Van Halen.

Alex started out initially on guitar while his brother Eddie dabbled with the drums. Alex actually took better to the later, so the two switched it up and the rest was rock history. The two played in a number of early bands together (the Broken Off Combs, the Space Brothers, and Mammoth Chammoth) before they settled on the name Van Halen in 1977.

Van Halen - Diver Down

Today (April 14th) marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Van Halen’s fifth studio album from 1982.

Diver Down sold over four million copies in the US and spent sixty five weeks total on the US Billboard Hot 200 album charts. It reached the number 3 spot on that chart; it also went to number 5 in Canada, number 19 in Norway, number 28 in Sweden and number 36 in the UK. Many of the tracks also charted on the US Mainstream Rock singles charts.