Van Halen III

The album's title refers to Van Halen's third recorded line-up, and the band's first two album titles, Van Halen and Van Halen II. Vocalist Sammy Hagar left the group in 1996, and was briefly replaced by original frontman David Lee Roth. Eventually, Roth departed and was replaced by Cherone who had performed with the group Extreme before their amicable breakup.

None of its material is featured on The Best of Both Worlds, the band's 2004 compilation.

As a producer, Eddie brought his friend Mike Post. The album's final track, "How Many Say I", was an unusual acoustic piano ballad featuring Eddie on lead vocals, and Cherone on backing vocals: Eddie declared he was forced into singing, and added harmonies so he would not perform alone.Evans Price, Deborah. [https://books.google.com/books?id=GQ8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18 "Van Halen Revs Up with New Singer"], Billboard, 21 February 1998

Van Halen III makes minimal use of Michael Anthony on bass guitar. Anthony only played bass on "Without You", "One I Want" & "Fire in the Hole"; Eddie Van Halen recorded bass for the rest of the album tracks that feature bass. After Michael Anthony's departure from Van Halen, he confirmed that Eddie Van Halen dictated to him how to play bass on this record.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} Anthony also said by the time of making this album, Eddie was playing the bass more as well as drums. "I don't know if Eddie was basically making a solo record, which is what Van Halen III seemed like to me."Rolling Stone, September 2009, Issue 694, "Quick and Dirty with Michael Anthony" by Rod Yates, page114. In recent years, it has been revealed that Alex Van Halen was absent from sessions on the album due to personal problems at the time and did not play on any tracks.{{cite web |last1=Sevinc |first1=Bihter |title=It's Not Eddie Van Halen's Fault That Gary Cherone Album Was A Failure, VH Producer Explains |url=https://rockcelebrities.net/its-not-eddie-van-halens-fault-that-gary-cherone-album-was-a-failure-vh-producer-explains/ |website=Rock Celebrities |access-date=25 July 2024 |date=8 June 2024}}

A track entitled "That's Why I Love You" was dropped at the last minute in favor of "Josephina", with "Fire in the Hole" featuring on the Lethal Weapon 4 film soundtrack.

"I would have preferred to tour with them and then put out a record," Cherone told KNAC. "It would have been a better idea to establish myself first and then hit the studio with the band… There were some great ideas and some little gems but it was not a great record. I had fun but at times it was like being a stranger in a strange land."Carr, David; KNAC.com; 16 July 2009

The album cover is a still picture from stock footage of Frank "Cannonball" Richards, a vaudeville and sideshow performer known for his act of getting shot in the gut with a cannonball.

Van Halen III debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 4, with 191,000 copies sold.[https://books.google.com/books?id=ug4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA84 Between the Bullets] The album has sold over 800,000 copies as of 2022. The album's only significant radio hit was "Without You", which reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on the March 7, 1998, issue of Billboard, and remained there for six weeks. Other songs receiving airplay on rock radio were "Fire in the Hole" and "One I Want".

{{Music ratings

|rev1 = AllMusic

|rev1score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r333315}}

|rev2 = Chicago Tribune

|rev2score = {{rating|2|4}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/03/08/wastes-of-talent/ |title=Wastes Of Talent |last=Kot |first=Greg |date=1998-03-08 |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=2018-07-01 |language=en |author-link=Greg Kot}}

|rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

|rev3score = B{{cite magazine|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,282294,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119092216/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,282294,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 19, 2008|title=Van Halen III Review|last=Sinclair|first=Tom|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|date=March 20, 1998|access-date=November 25, 2012}}

|rev4 = Los Angeles Times

|rev4score = {{rating|3|4}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-15-ca-28985-story.html |title=Album Review |last=Masuo |first=Sandy |date=1998-03-15 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=2018-07-01 |language=en-US |issn=0458-3035}}

|rev5 = Rolling Stone

|rev5score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/van-halen-iii-19980302|title=Van Halen III|last=Kot|first=Greg|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=March 2, 1998|access-date=November 25, 2012}}

|rev6 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

|rev6score = {{rating|1|5}}{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac |url-access=registration |chapter=Van Halen|page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/842 842]|title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor-last1=Brackett |editor-first=Nathan |editor-last2=Hoard |editor-first2=Christian David |date=2004 |publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9780743201698 |language=en |editor-link1=Nathan Brackett |editor-link2=Christian Hoard}}

|noprose = yes

}}

Reception for Van Halen III was mostly mixed to negative. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic stated the album fails to break away from the formula that Van Halen had exhausted over 20 years and "suffers from the same problems as Hagar-era Van Halen – limp riffs, weak melodies, and plodding, colorless rhythms." Entertainment Weekly gave it a B grade rating, saying, "judging from the renewed intensity of Eddie’s guitar playing throughout much of III, having a merely competent, relatively ego-free singer seems to have reinvigorated his muse" but goes on to say "How Many Say I", a song Eddie sang lead vocals on, was "cringeworthy" and "unintentionally hilarious". Greg Kot from Rolling Stone gave it 2 stars out of 5 noting, "Cherone sounds disconcertingly like Hagar, full of spleen-busting bluster and incapable of understatement", and "When the band plays it heavy, it mires itself in a Seventies tar pit, with only the chorus of 'Without You' achieving any sort of pop resonance." Kot compliments Eddie's vocals saying, "'How Many Say I' finds the guitarist singing in a disarmingly appealing, nicotine-stained voice over a moody piano melody." Billboard reviewer Paul Verna summed up III as "a wasted opportunity to breathe life into a now-tired formula".[https://books.google.com/books?id=yQ4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA55 Albums]

All songs credited to Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Gary Cherone and Alex Van Halen.

{{Track listing

| title1 = Neworld

| note1 = Instrumental

| length1 = 1:45

| title2 = Without You

| length2 = 6:30

| title3 = One I Want

| length3 = 5:30

| title4 = From Afar

| length4 = 5:24

| title5 = Dirty Water Dog

| length5 = 5:27

| title6 = Once

| length6 = 7:42

| title7 = Fire in the Hole

| length7 = 5:31

| title8 = Josephina

| length8 = 5:42

| title9 = Year to the Day

| length9 = 8:34

| title10 = Primary

| note10 = Instrumental

| length10 = 1:27

| title11 = Ballot or the Bullet

| length11 = 5:42

| title12 = How Many Say I

| length12 = 6:04

|total_length = 65:22

}}

• Gary Cherone – lead vocals, backing vocals (track 12)
• Eddie Van Halen – guitars, bass (tracks 4–6, 8, 9 and 11), keyboards, electric sitar (track 10), backing vocals, lead vocals (track 12), drums (uncredited), production, engineering
• Michael Anthony – bass (tracks 2, 3 and 7), backing vocals
• Alex Van Halen – drums, percussion (credit only)

• Mike Post – piano on "Neworld", production

• Florian Ammon – programming
• Dan Chavkin – photography
• Ian Dye – programming
• The Edward – mixing, mastering
• Erwin Musper – engineers
• Robbes – mixing, mastering
• Ed Rogers – programming
• F. Scott Schafer – coloring
• Eddy Schreyer – mastering
• Stine Schyberg – art direction
• Paul Wight – programming

{{col-begin}}

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{{col-end}}

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{{certification Table Entry|region=Japan|type=album|award=Platinum|title=Van Halen III|artist=Van Halen|relyear=1998|certyear=1998|certmonth=3|access-date=February 27, 2020}}

{{certification Table Entry|region=United States|type=album|award=Gold|title=Van Halen III|artist=Van Halen}}

{{certification Table Bottom|nosales=yes}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book|title=Eruption—Conversations With Eddie Van Halen|first1=Chris|last1=Gill|first2=Brad|last2=Tolinski|pages=178–218|publisher=Hachette Books|location=New York|year=2021|isbn=9780306826658}}

{{Van Halen}}

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Category:1998 albums

Category:Van Halen albums

Category:Warner Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Mike Post

Category:Albums recorded at 5150 Studios