GREATEST HITS WEEK (JANUARY 17-23, 2011)
Van Halen really messed this one up. Poor track selection and sequencing. Plus the addition of two insignificant new tracks. My suggestion would have been to have to issue a Volume I, 1974-1985 (The David Lee Roth years) and Volume II, 1985-1996 (The Sammy Hagar years).
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #1 (1 week, Nov 9, 1996)
Tracks:
| Year | Rock | Pop | |
| Eruption | 1978 | ||
| Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love | 1978 | ||
| Runnin' With the Devil | 1978 | 84 | |
| Dance the Night Away | 1979 | 15 | |
| And The Cradle Will Rock... | 1980 | 55 | |
| Unchained | 1981 | 13 | |
| Jump | 1984 | 1 | 1 |
| Panama | 1984 | 2 | 13 |
| Why Can't This Be Love | 1986 | 1 | 3 |
| Dreams | 1986 | 6 | 22 |
| Poundcake | 1991 | 1 | |
| Right Now | 1992 | 2 | 55 |
| Can't Stop Lovin' You | 1995 | 2 | 30 |
| Humans Being | 1996 | 1 | |
| Can't Get This Stuff No More | 1996 | 12 | |
| Me Wise Magic | 1996 | 1 |
Top 40 omissions: You Really Got Me (#36, 1978), (Oh) Pretty Woman (#12, 1982), Dancing In The Street (#38, 1982), I'll Wait (#13, 1984), Love Walks In (#22, 1986), Black and Blue (#34, 1988), Finish What Ya Started (#13, 1988), Feels So Good (#35, 1989), Top Of The World (#27, 1991). I guess the record execs were holding these back for Volume 2 which never materialized.
The first 8 tracks (with DLR) are all good, but the compilation would have been stronger with the inclusion of You Really Got Me, Hot For Teacher, Beautiful Girls, I'll Wait, and at least one of the singles from Diver Down. My favorite VH song is Panama, so the CD can't be all bad if that's included. However, the CD starts off with Eruption then doesn't seque into You Really Got Me. How can you do that?!? Those two go together like fried chicken and waffles.
Of the Sammy Hagar stuff, I like Why Can't This Be Love and When It's Love. I never liked Right Now, in part because of the video which had the lines printed in big block letters across the screen such as, "Right now, a mad man is wandering the streets of the town you live in." That's too disturbing for my delicate sensibilities. I don't understand why the last three tracks are even included on this compilation. Maybe I just lost interest in the band after I left college.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None, I don't listen to this CD often. I'd rather listen to Diver Down or their first album. One of the best lines from the 1998 movie The Wedding Singer (which is set around 1985) is when Adam Sandler tells his girlfriend, "Please get out of my Van Halen t-shirt before you jinx the band and they break up."
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