Van Halen - Fair Warning

Today (April 29th) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Fair Warning, the fourth studio album from Van Halen. This Platinum-selling 1981 release went to number 97 in Australia, number 49 in the UK, number 37 in Germany, number 27 in Norway, number 18 in Sweden, number 13 in the Netherlands, and number 11 in Canada. Here in the US it spent twenty-three weeks on the US Billboard Album chart and peaked at number 5.

Van Halen - Van Halen II (35th anniversary)

Welcome to another edition of Seventies Sunday.

Today (March 23rd) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Van Halen II, the appropriately titled second studio album from Van Halen.

Click here for my full review of this rocker.

Van Halen - 1984 (30th anniversary)

Today (January 9th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of 1984, the smash album from Van Halen.

This was one of the early albums I reviewed on the blog, back in 2011, when I was just getting into doing these kinds of posts. Click here to read the full post.

Van Halen - Van Halen (35th anniversary)

Today (February 10th) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the release of the self-titled debut album from Van Halen.

If you have not read it already, please click here to check out my review of this rocking release.

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.

Van Halen - Van Halen II

Happy fifty-seventh birthday today (January 26th) to guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer Eddie Van Halen.

Following up their hit debut album the year before (click here for my review of that one), Van Halen released Van Halen II on March 23rd of 1979. The record charted even better than their first, reaching number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 200, number 15 in Canada and number 23 in the UK. Since then, it has gone multi-Platinum in sales and become a main-staple of album-oriented rock stations everywhere.

Van Halen - Van Halen

Welcome to another edition of Seventies Saturday.

On February 10th of 1978, the California based rock quartet Van Halen released the self-titled studio debut album Van Halen. The record was a huge seller (over 10 million copies) and it went to number 19 on the US Billboard Album charts, number 18 in Canada, number 24 in the UK and number 5 in Germany. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album at number 415 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.

Van Halen - 1984

1984 was both the name of and the release year for Van Halen’s sixth studio album, released on January 9 of that year. It was one of the band’s most popular records to date (both in chart performance and sales). It peaked on the Billboard album charts at number 2 (blocked by Michael Jackson’s Thriller). It also produced three top 20 hits singles and the band’s first (and only to date) number 1 hit single. The album was ranked number 81 in Rolling Stone magazine’s top 100 Albums of the 1980’s; it also appears on the 1001 Albums list.