Van Halen’s Debut Album Raised The Bar

Van Halen’s legendary self titled debut album would effectively turn rock music upside down. Eddie Van Halen, like Hendrix, Page, and a handful of others before him, would change the way people approached playing the guitar. This album raised the bar yet again for young upcoming bands. Released on January 10, 1978 Van Halen would contain some of the bands best known and most loved songs. It debuted at number 19 on Billboard and went on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide. According to reports the album was tracked mostly live with minimal overdubs over a period of about 3 weeks. It cost just over $40,000 in total. The band did not have a lot of material to draw from just yet so they basically just recorded the live set. The cover art consists of pictures taken during an earlier show at The Whisky a-go-go in Hollywood.