David Lee Roth VS. Sammy Hagar

I know that the favored frontman for Van Halen has been debated many, many times over.  So, let's allow the boys to have a different kind of fisticuffs right here on the CMR.


Who had the best SOLO career?

You may not vote more than once, but you can cancel your vote and change.  So, who will win this super singer smackdown???

I preferred DLR fronting Van Halen.....but I think Sammy's solo albums where better than Dave's.

I noticed you didn't include Gary Cherone.  I think he had at least one solo album.

WITH the band, there is no contest, it's Diamond Dave all the way.  That's not to knock Sammy's contributions to VH in the slightest, because it's still great material.....but there is audio MAGIC with the DLR era stuff.


Solo career, though?  Red Rocker absolute SMOKES DLR.  tosses him on the grill and let's him cook slow all day long.  No comparison.  Roth' solo debut is amazing, but if you like what Sammy Hagar brings to the table, he doesn't really swing and miss, in my experience.

I like them both equally in VH. No choice for me because both were awesome. 5150 came out my freshman year in highschool. OU812 was just as good.

As for solo careers, Eat Em & Smile is awesome. At the time it was like having 2 VH albums at the same time. Skyscraper is decent but not as good. I know I listened to it a lot on cassette in my car when it came out. I picked it up on vinyl a couple of years ago cheap. 

With all that said I prefer Sammy's solo stuff. While quite a bit of the tracks are album filler songs like Three Lock Box, 55, Give To Live, Eagles Fly, Heavy Metal etc are all great tunes. I have his best of CD that is in a red jewel case (can't remember the name) and it is an excellent comp cd which includes a few Montrose tunes. Good stuff. So for solo I gotta go w Sammy. But for VH they are equal to me.

I go with Hagar on this, but not by that much. Roth had some good stuff in the era between Crazy from the Heat and A Little Ain't Enough.

Hagar because of one song

While not a "solo" song, this is one of Sammy's best. First song he ever wrote.

I prefer Sammy Hagar.

Solo is Hagar and in VH it's Dave due to the first three albums they did.

I'd go with Dave as i'm more familiar with his solo work (still havent heard any Hagar albums since Ten 13), but I will admit that DLR WAS lucky enough to have killer guitarists on his first 3 albums (not counting Crazy From the Heat). If Billy Sheehan, Steve Vai, and Jason Becker hadnt played on those albums, I doubt they'd be as popular as they are.

I went with Sammy just for the sheer body of work and for the number of hits he produced over the years.  Roth never had that.  His number of albums are limited, and I don't remember their being a huge body of hits on rock radio.  Of course, Hair Nation plays more Roth than Hagar, but they are rather formulaic.

Best Solo career, imo, is Sammy.

Standing Hamptom, by itself, beats All of DLRs solo stuff put together.

For VH, I prefer DLR, but the thread is about Solo, AND, Sammy still isn't done!!

I remember hearing this song on the radio and the DJ saying "Van Halen wishes they had this song"  

Eat 'em and Smile is a classic ["Shyboy" is one of my all time favorite songs and never gets old (yes, I know it is Sheehan's song)], but Hagar just has so much more to choose from as he was a solo artist long before Dave left VH.  I'll take Dave's stuff with VH and I still love Van Hagar.  There's a lot of filler on Sammy's stuff, but enough hits to put his solo career well above Dave's.