Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1

Editors’ Notes David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar may be rivals, but on Van Halen’s first package of hits they live side by side. The first half oozes with Roth’s party anthem sass (“Panama”) and pop-metal acrobatics (“Runnin’ With the Devil”), and the arrival of ballad “Why Can’t This Be Love” halfway through marks the collection’s shift to Hagar’s melodic hard rock and gritty earnestness. The set closes with two cuts documenting Roth’s brief reunion with the boys in 1996, including the icily hypnotic “Me Wise Magic.”