Official top 50 Van Halen songs thread!! (Countdown has begun!!)

[WardySI]

Also chose no covers but had to include couple solos as it's Eddie so had Eruption at #10 and I may have been the only one to include 316 in their lists (#15), just love that piece 😁

Had Seventh Seal at #23 killer opening song!

[KevShmev]

Before we get to the top 20, here are the songs that did not make the top 50:

51 Sinner’s Swing!         
52 Hang ‘Em High         
53 Aftershock            
54 Dirty Movies         
55 Outta Love Again         
56 Me Wise Magic         
57 Can’t Stop Lovin’ You      
58 Blood and Fire         
59 Women in Love…         
60 China Town            
61 The Full Bug         
62 Black and Blue         
63 House of Pain         
64 Loss of Control         
65 Cabo Wabo            
66 Get Up            
67 So This Is Love?         
68 (Oh) Pretty Woman      
69 Outta Space         
70 Take Your Whiskey Home   
71 Not Enough            
72 Pleasure Dome         
73 Take Me Back (Déjà vu)   
74 Fools                
75 Runaround            
76 Bottoms Up!         
77 She’s the Woman         
78 Source of Infection      
79 Push Comes to Shove      
80 Big River            
81 Honeybabysweetiedoll      
82 Sucker in a 3 Piece      
83 Secrets             
84 A.F.U. (Naturally Wired)   
85 Without You         
86 Crossing Over         
87 Amsterdam            
88 Bullethead            
89 Finish What Ya Started      
90 Baluchitherium         
91 As Is               
92 Once                
93 316               
94 Dirty Water Dog         
95 Could This Be Magic?      
96 One Foot out the Door      
97 Learning to See         
98 You’re No Good          
99 In ‘n’ Out            
100 From Afar            
101 Stay Frosty            
102 Can’t Get This Stuff No More   
103 Year to the Day         
104 Spanish Fly            
105 Big Fat Money         
106 Josephina            
107 One I Want            
108 Fire in a Hole         
109 Spanked            
110 Man on a Mission         
111 It's About Time         
112 You and Your Blues      
113 The Trouble with Never      
114 Ballot or the Bullet      
115 Inside            
116 Happy Trails         
117 (t)  Dancing in the Street      
117 (t) Little Guitars (intro)      
119 Where Have all the Good Times Gone   
120 (t) Cathedral            
120 (t) Doin’ Time             
122 Neworld            
123 How Many Say I         
124 (t) Tora! Tora!            
124 (t) Sunday Afternoon in the Park   
124 (t) Intruder            
124 (t) Big Bad Bill            
124 (t) 1984               
124 (t) A Apolitical Blues         
124 (t) Strung Out            
124 (t) Primary             
124 (t) Up for Breakfast         
124 (t) Tattoo             
124 (t) Beats Workin’         

[bl5150]

I think most of my Top 20 is in that list (only half joking).  I always knew one of my Top 10 would struggle to crack Top 100 (correct) but surprised to see as many of my top 20-25 outside the Top 50 as there are.

Looks like Sammy is going to do well

[Dream Team]

Definitely see some unnecessary bias against ADKOT on that list. A bunch of great songs from that album are way too low.

[Deadeye21]

Right, so most of my top 50 ended way below the top 20. This is disappointing.

[HOF]

At least four songs from III in the top 100!

[DragonAttack]

25 Hear About It Later (NR)
24 The Seventh Seal (#44)
23 And the Cradle Will Rock… (#18)
22 On Fire (#50)
21 Eruption (#5)

[DragonAttack]

and the one's that did not get ranked

62 Black and Blue (#1)       
68 (Oh) Pretty Woman (#41) 
70 Take Your Whiskey Home  (#29)
71 Not Enough  (#12)         
73 Take Me Back (Déjà vu) (#13) 
78 Source of Infection (#32)     
86 Crossing Over (#26)       
89 Finish What Ya Started (#10) 
105 Big Fat Money (#28)         
116 Happy Trails (#45)     
117 (t)  Dancing in the Street  (#46)   

[KevShmev]

At least four songs from III in the top 100!

Considering only 133 songs got ranked, that is not exactly a notable accomplishment.

My biggies that didn't make the top 50 (my rank in parenthesis):

Pleasure Dome (6)
Black and Blue (11)
Sinner's Swing! (12)
Dirty Movies (17)
Take Me Back (19)
Outta Space (27)
Big River (29)
Cabo Wabo (30)
Outta Love Again (33)
The Trouble with Never (36)
Once (38)

[HOF]

The biggest snub relative to my rankings was Not Enough, which was my number 3. Have loved that one since I saw them play it on Letterman. Really great solo, one of Eddie’s most emotional IMO.

Here’s the Letterman clip:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nS3r_br-l0c

The other two from my top 10 that didn’t make it are Once (8) and Without You (9), but no big surprise there.

[TAC]

Before we get to the top 20, here are the songs that did not make the top 50:

51 Sinner’s Swing!  Had it at #24         
52 Hang ‘Em High  Had it at #48         
53 Aftershock  Had it at #36               
55 Outta Love Again   Had it at #7               
60 China Town   Had it at #35         
61 The Full Bug   Had it at #11               
63 House of Pain  Had it at #28         
64 Loss of Control  Had it at #27               
66 Get Up   Had it at #49         
67 So This Is Love?  Had it at #5            
70 Take Your Whiskey Home  Had it at #39   
74 Fools Had it at #18                  
76 Bottoms Up!   Had it at #32                  
81 Honeybabysweetiedoll   Had it at #13               
84 A.F.U. (Naturally Wired)   Had it at #34
91 As Is Had it at #40      
      

Wow, nearly 1/3 of my list didn't even rate. Including two Top 10's.

[HOF]

One track that I didn’t rank but which I think is pretty cool is One Foot Out The Door. Paired with Sunday Afternoon In The Park it’s one of the more out there things VH ever did. Has kind of a Robert Fripp Exposure vibe.

[wolfking]

Before we get to the top 20, here are the songs that did not make the top 50:

      
52 Hang ‘Em High - My rank - 31      
53 Aftershock - My rank - 14                              
61 The Full Bug - My rank - 27                  
64 Loss of Control - My rank - 24                  
69 Outta Space - My rank - 45                  
72 Pleasure Dome - My rank - 43                        
75 Runaround - My rank - 41                  
79 Push Comes to Shove - My rank - 21      
80 Big River - My rank - 44            
81 Honeybabysweetiedoll - My rank 16                
87 Amsterdam - My rank - 11            
88 Bullethead - My rank - 42                  
91 As Is - My rank - 34                              
109 Spanked - My rank - 28                   

Few differences in there lol.

[The Realm]

Looking at that outside the top 50 list, it looks like 9 of my songs didn't make the top 50 and I still have 9 of my top 10 in play.

My significant misses were:

China Town - my rank 23. My fav song on ADKOT.

Runaround - my rank 29.

I did also have Spanish Fly (32) and was very sure that would be unranked.

[TAC]

I cannot believe Outta Love Again didn't make the Top 50. That is fucking criminal. That song smokes.

[The Realm]

I cannot believe Outta Love Again didn't make the Top 50. That is fucking criminal. That song smokes.

Well I wouldn't have been surprised if it made it but to me the song is kind of a mess. Some great parts but I'm just not a fan of Dave's vocals and those screams are kind of painful and unnecessary and there are too many of them. Apart from the backing vocals, it just has nothing going for it melodically in regards to vocals.

[Dream Team]

I cannot believe Outta Love Again didn't make the Top 50. That is fucking criminal. That song smokes.

Yeah I'm not surprised anymore. This is a very proggy Pink Floydey type board and a lot of the more straightforward metally VH songs just don't seem to be liked as much. Still hoping a few make the Top 10.

[WilliamMunny]

Right, so most of my top 50 ended way below the top 20. This is disappointing.

My number one ("Me Wise Magic") didn't crack the top 50...I feel your pain

[TAC]

So I still have 18 songs on my list that will appear in the Top 20.

6 of them made MY Top 10, and 4 more made MY Top 20.

[KevShmev]

I was also pretty shocked that Outta Love Again didn't make the top 50.

I also thought Pleasure Dome would get more love since it is kinda long and people here love those longer songs.

[TAC]

I don't know. Of the Hagar songs, the one I was most surprised not being in the Top 50 was Runaround, even though I didn't rate it personally.

[WardySI]

Had Cabo Wabo at #6 Aftershock#28 Mr Wise Magic #30 and Runaround at #42... Also surprised so many ADKOT tracks didn't make the 50, album was a loyal throwback to what made the original Roth stuff so good.  Blood And Fire (#21) Outta Space (#26) and China Town (#48) all class IMO!

[KevShmev]

Let's get the top 20 going!

20 Judgement Day
Appeared on 11 of 17  entrees
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 7  (wolfking)

I was a little surprised this did so well. I had it at 32, and figured that was its ceiling in this, but I was way off.  Killer riff, really good song.


19 In A Simple Rhyme
Appeared on 10 of 17  entrees
Top 10 finishes: 4
Highest Ranking: 1  (Stadler)

This one just missed the cut for me.  I love that intro, and then later when it is brought back in the middle section, but I find the rest of the song to be merely good.


18 Jamie’s Cryin
Appeared on 11 of 17  entrees
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 3  (Stadler)

Despite being overplayed, this song is still money.  I had it at 28.

[bl5150]

Funny how things differ between countries but Jamie's Cryin overplayed? ..............more like never played down here in Australia....with one exception. One of my earliest exposures to Van Halen was on a music show down here called Rage and they played those "live" videos with Dave in the red silk shirt back to back.  It was a package that opened with Eruption (while introducing the band with pics)  and then had Runnin With The Devil, You Really Got Me and Jamie's Cryin.   That is the sole time I have ever heard Jamie's Cryin played on any tv or radio in Australia.

Anyway..........Jamie's Cryin is cool and all but was never a huge fave and one of the few on VH1 I may occasionally skip.  Ranked #63

In A Simple Rhyme I had at #43.  Anything inside my Top 50 is a song I genuinely like but there's just 42 I like a bit better.

Judgement Day is one of the top couple of songs on FUCK - it never impressed me greatly as a whole album , but this was a very cool song which really grabbed me on first listen. Ranked #39.   My Top 50 is almost 80% DLR songs so any Sammy songs I let through are pretty big faves and this is one of em.

[devieira73]

Jamie's Crying (#5) - Love this song, what a killer guitar groove!!
Judgement Day (#34) - Like most F.U.C.K., it was VH updating his style for the 90's hard rock/metal and making it in a really good way.

[hefdaddy42]

Definitely see some unnecessary bias against ADKOT on that list. A bunch of great songs from that album are way too low.

I don't know about unnecessary bias.  If people didn't like it, they didn't like it.  Like me.

[pg1067]

Right, so most of my top 50 ended way below the top 20. This is disappointing.

If it makes you feel any better, "most of" everyone's top 50 will end up below the top 20.  Any other result is mathematically impossible.

[TAC]

20 Judgement Day
Appeared on 11 of 17  entrees
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 7  (wolfking)


19 In A Simple Rhyme
Appeared on 10 of 17  entrees
Top 10 finishes: 4
Highest Ranking: 1  (Stadler)


18 Jamie’s Cryin
Appeared on 11 of 17  entrees
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 3  (Stadler)

I had Judgement Day at #22. This song kicks ass. Period.



I had In A Simple Rhyme at #3. "Ain't life grand when you finally hit it". What a great line. This is a wonderful song. A well crafted piece of work amidst the craziness of the rest of the DLR era.
Nice to see it with FOUR Top 10 finishes.


I had Jamie's Criyin' as Not Ranked. I don't know. I've never loved this song.

[The Realm]

20 Judgement Day
Appeared on 11 of 17  entrees
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 7  (wolfking)

19 In A Simple Rhyme
Appeared on 10 of 17  entrees
Top 10 finishes: 4
Highest Ranking: 1  (Stadler)

18 Jamie’s Cryin
Appeared on 11 of 17  entrees
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 3  (Stadler)

Judgement Day - my rank 12. This is a great song, always loved this one. If my calcs are correct, there are two songs from F.U.C.K. to come, one I agree with (being ranked higher) and one I don't.

In A Simple Rhyme - Never been a big fan of this one, it's a good song but didn't find room for it in my top 50.

Jamie's Cryin - my rank 11. Classic song.

[wolfking]

I honestly can't stand Jamie's Crying.  I found that chorus like fingernails on a blackboard.

Judgement Day as everyone can see was number 7, killer song.  Rhyme was 49 for me.

[HOF]

Judgement Day was 43 for me. Iffy lyrics, but a killer riff and a real ear worm. This one gets stuck in my head for whatever reason.

In A Simple Rhyme wasn’t ranked, but I will note this song kind of sounds like Journey to me, which is cool.

Jaime’s Cryin’ was 35. This one also gets stuck in my head. Another VH radio classic that I always liked. Great hook, great backing vocals. Really catchy song.

[The Realm]

Yes, nothing surprises me in this countdown but I guess it still does! I can totally see why Jamie's Cryin is unranked or unliked but I have got to admit I am astounded by some of the love for In A Simple Rhyme. Four top finishes and a number 1? Just wow to me but carry on...

[KevShmev]

Fun facts:

-Not a single song landed on all 17 submitted lists
-Only two songs were on 16 of the 17 lists
-The song that finished at number 1 on the most lists does not finish at number 1 overall

[The Realm]

Nice facts Kev. I have absolutely no idea what will be number 1. Pretty astonished that we couldn't get at least 1 song on everyone's list but I guess what would it be? I mean there are a few songs I could name that I think should have been on everyone's lists but then I do get why they are not. We have some old school VH fans, some new school (so to speak) fans, some Sammy fans and some Dave fans, even some Cherone fans so that makes it pretty tough.

[TAC]

Those are fun facts.