Van Halen’s long winning streak on the charts ended with the July 18, 1995 release of “Not Enough”.
The majestic piano-powered ballad, which features Michael Anthony playing fretless bass for the first time on record, peaked at 97 on the Billboard Hot 100. After “Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)”, “Amsterdam” and the Top 30 “Can’t Stop Lovin ‘You”, it was the last single released from Balance, group’s fourth and final studio album with second singer Sammy Hagar.
Between his 1978 self-titled album and BalanceVan Halen won 23 Hot 100 singles. All but two of his 10 studio albums (all except the 80s Women and children first and 1981 Fair warning) generated at least a Top 40 hit. Hagar’s decade-long tenure with the band was responsible for 11 of those Hot 100 songs and 9 of the 16 appearances in the group’s Top 40. But the “Van Hagar” lineup, but had run out of gas and patience for each other.
“We were doing the Balance record, but it was all over for Van Halen, “Hagar said in his 2011 autobiography Red: my life uncensored in rock. “If it wasn’t for producer Bruce Fairbairn, we would never have finished that record … I knew they were trying to get rid of me. Eddie [Van Halen] he was trying to make me quit. She would find something wrong with every letter she wrote. “
Watch Van Halen’s “Not Enough” Video
Things did not improve on the injury-ridden “Ambulance” tour that the band mounted in support of the album. Both Eddie and his drummer Alex were battling painful chronic wounds, and the battles between the duo and Hagar continued to escalate.
After the last show, Hagar says he was pressured by the Van Halen brothers to record the song “Humans Being” for the movie’s soundtrack. TwisterHe then tried to get him to participate in a blockbuster album that would feature two new songs each voiced by himself and original leader David Lee Roth. That was the last straw, and on Father’s Day 1996, Hagar was fired or left the band, depending on who you listen to.
Van Halen remained active for the rest of the decade. Both Hagar’s “Humans Being” and Roth’s “Me Wise Magic” Best of – Volume 1 hit number 1 on BillboardMainstream Rock chart in 1996, but none made it to the Hot 100.
None of the three singles the group released in 1998 Van Halen III, the first and only album they released with third singer Gary Cherone, although the single “Sin ti” made it to the top of the Mainstream Rock chart.
Hagar briefly met with the band in 2004 for a disastrous tour and to record three new songs for another collection of greatest hits. Promotional singles “It’s About Time” and “Up for Breakfast” peaked at number 6 and 33 on the Mainstream Rock chart.
Three years later, Roth returned to the band for the first time on a series of reunion tours. At the same time, Hagar loyalist Michael Anthony was replaced on bass by Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang. The new lineup of “original three-quarters, one inevitable quarter,” as Roth called it in concert, released the A different kind of truth album in 2012. The single “Tattoo” peaked at number 67 on the Hot 100, briefly ending the band’s 17-year absence from the charts.
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