VAN HALEN Scored Their First No. 1 Album In The US With ‘5150’ Today 40 Years Ago
Back in time
24 March 2026
Californian heavyweight rockers VAN HALEN (1972–1999, 2003–2020)
scored their first No. 1 album in the US with their 7th, named 5150.
It topped the charts on 24 March 1986, today 40 years ago.
It was the first of 4 LPs with red rocker Sammy Hagar on vocals,
replacing David Lee Roth, who left to pursue a solo career. He
would return in 2007.
Many called the new incarnation Van Hagar. The nickname was so ubiquitous that,
as Hagar later pointed out in a book, record label Warner Bros asked to consider
renaming the band as such. The Van Halen brothers refused.
The LP’s artwork features an Art Deco depiction of Atlas
kneeling while holding a mirror-polished metallic sphere
on his shoulders.
Rolling Stone‘s verdict: “Part of Eddie Van Halen’s cheeky genius lies in his ability to think in terms of both complex orchestration and rock banalities. Eddie can still split the atom with his axe, and he knows it. It’s a Van Halen world with or without David Lee Roth, and 5150 shoots off all the bombastic fireworks of a band at the peak of its powers.”
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ALBUM
