5 David Lee Roth-Era Van Halen Deep Cuts You Probably Forgot About

While you’ve been busy cranking “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love” or “Panama” on repeat, you might have forgotten about these Van Halen deep cuts. Between 1978 and 2012, Van Halen released 12 studio albums and employed three lead singers. This list focuses on the David Lee Roth era as the band experimented, evolved, and adapted to fame.

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“Little Dreamer”

Van Halen I is so stacked with classics that it’s easy to overlook the deeper tracks. David Lee Roth became famous for carnival barker howls, grunts, and Pepé Le Pew come-ons. But Roth croons in a mid-tempo number called “Little Dreamers”, where he gets nostalgic about an underdog friend. Or it could be the younger version of himself that people underestimated. Roth had an instinct for melody, which made the goofy stuff endearing.

“Take Your Whiskey Home”

I wonder how many guitarists just hung it up after a new Van Halen record dropped. “Take Your Whiskey Home” begins with acoustic outlaw blues before the band kicks in with a groove so deep you know you’re “headed for a whole lotta trouble.” One of my favorite aspects of the early Van Halen records was how they panned the guitar to one side. It puts you in the middle of the room with the band while Roth delivers a saloon anthem.

“One Foot Out The Door”

This is a deep cut. The final track on Fair Warning features a synthesizer that straddles the line between prog and krautrock. Eddie Van Halen always experimented and tinkered, and one might have left it on the cutting room floor. But “One Foot Out The Door” sounds like an early test case for how the synthesizer would expand Van Halen’s palette. It’s fascinating from the perspective of how Eddie’s interest in keyboards led to the band’s only No. 1 song, “Jump”.

“Little Guitars”

Every last note of “Little Guitars” is satisfying. It’s not a song where Eddie burns. It’s not loud or heavy. But Roth reveals his feelings for a señorita, urged along by a staccato riff where Eddie sounds like a one-man guitar orchestra. He recorded the track using a mini Gibson Les Paul, which gave the song its title.

“Intruder” (Intro to “(Oh) Pretty Woman”)

When Van Halen filmed the music video for their cover of Roy Orbison’s “(Oh) Pretty Woman”, the visual ended up longer than the song. Roth didn’t want to edit what they’d filmed, so the band recorded an instrumental to use as an intro. While the band jammed, Roth worked out the ominous synth part. Alex Van Halen’s heavy Motown beat drives “Intruder” while Eddie’s screeching feedback comes courtesy of, among other things, dragging a can of Schlitz Malt Liquor across his guitar.

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