Description
Before 1985, when Sammy Hagar became the second front-man for Van Halen, he had a fairly successful career as a solo artist. Unboxed compiles his best songs from the decade before he replaced Diamond Dave. In truth, this is probably the best way to hear Hagar solo because, like David Lee Roth and Joe Walsh, Hagars individual records were never really strong enough to stand alone. Standout tracks on Unboxed include “Heavy Metal,” a murky, futuristic cut recorded for the film of same name, the bluesy, blustery “Three Lock Box,” and the anthemic radio cut “I Can’t Drive 55.” In 1997, Hagar left Van Halen to recharge his solo career.
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Unboxed by Sammy Hagar
Released March 15, 1994
Recorded 1980 – 1993
Genre Hard Rock
Length 49:34
Label Geffen Records
Unboxed is a compilation album of Sammy Hagars recording career at Geffen Records. It features two previously unreleased songs, “High Hopes” and “Buying My Way Into Heaven”.
Sammy called the record Unboxed, to poke fun at all the artists and bands that were releasing boxed set collections at the time. Released on March 15, Sammy was required to do a two-week press junket behind the album. He did the David Letterman Show and appeared on CNNs Showbiz Today. He was slotted to do the Tonight Show and perform “Give to Live,” but the Van Halen brothers forced Michael Anthony to withdraw from Sammys band at the last minute, thus cancelling the performance.
According to Sammys autobiography, the Van Halen brothers did not want Sammy to put out an album. Sammy was going through a divorce with his first wife Betsy, and the album would help settle it. In an interview with Howard Stern in 2011, Sammy said he paid his wife nearly nine million dollars, and twenty three thousand dollars a month for many years to follow. Sammy never kept a penny on that release, as all the money it made was given to his ex-wife, as part of a divorce settlement.
During this time, Van Halen was in the process of hiring a new manager after Ed Leffler died in October 1993, and behind the scenes, the band was beginning to fall apart. Sammy created a new publishing company called, “Nine Music” and insisted that his portions of the Van Halen publishing no longer be combined with Van Halens publishing company, “Yessup.” In order for the album to be released by Geffen, Sammy wanted atleast $500,000 for two new songs. There would be no single released, or new video. A greatest hits package had been released by Capitol in 1992, and Sammy had no control over that, this album would be released on Geffen.
Sammy negotiated a publishing deal for Unboxed which gave him around $750,000. According to Sammys autobiography, he had a clause in his contract with Van Halen that said he could record a solo album after each Van Halen studio album. Sammy would receive upwards of a million and a half dollars for each album. When Van Halens new manager came into the picture, Ray Danniels had this clause removed, which caused tension between Sammy and the Van Halen camp.
The album featured two new songs, both of which had been presented to the Van Halen camp many years prior, but had been rejected. Sammy recorded the songs with producer Mike Clink.
Song information:
“High Hopes” is about the inspirational effects that comes with smoking marijuana, only to have those inspirational dreams forgotten when the effects wear off. When asked if it was a pro-drug song or anti-drug song, Sammy simply stated, “Hey, its the facts, Jack. Its not pro or negative, I’m just talking about what happens.”
“Buying My Way Into Heaven” is about televangelists. “I have relatives. I have people within my family. I know people that within their family that are not really well off. And they skimp and scrape to send these people $10 bucks, $20 bucks, whatever they can afford. And the idea of it is so that they can be guaranteed, that because they’ve had a miserable life on the planet Earth, and been such beaten down and had such heartbreaks and bad luck. That these guys go out and they tell these people, send me your money, and I’ll make sure you’re okay in Heaven.’ And I think thats about the lowest thing that anyone can do to anyone. I think that these people should send their money, ’cause these guys are multi-multi-hundreds of millions of dollars that they have, and they should send these people that need the money the money and not ask them to send it to them. If they want to do something for God, they should send money to these people, and they should open up their big giant mansions and their churches to the homeless and feed them daily.”
Track listing:
“i) – 5:19
“Buying My Way into Heaven” (Sammy Hagar) – 4:39
“I’ll Fall in Love Again” (Sammy Hagar) – 4:10
“Theres Only One Way to Rock” (Sammy Hagar) – 4:15
“Heavy Metal” (Sammy Hagar/Jim Peterik) – 3:50
“Eagles Fly” (Sammy Hagar) – 4:59
“Babys on Fire” (Sammy Hagar) – 3:34
“Three Lock Box” (Sammy Hagar) – 3:21
“Two Sides of Love” (Sammy Hagar) – 3:41
“I Can’t Drive 55” (Sammy Hagar) – 4:13
“Give to Live” (Sammy Hagar) – 4:23
“I Don’t Need Love” (Bill Church/Sammy Hagar/David Lauser/Gary Pihl) – 3:10
Personnel:
Sammy Hagar: lead vocals on all songs, guitar
Gary Pihl: guitar on 3-5, 7-10, 12
Jesse Harms: keyboards 6, 9-11
John Pierce: bass on 1-2
Bill Church: bass on 3-5, 7-10, 12
Eddie Van Halen: bass on 6 and 11
David Lauser: drums
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“I Can’t Drive 55” was the lead single and first track from Sammy Hagars eighth studio album VOA in 1984. Perpetuated by a very successful music video, it became a concert staple that continued throughout Sammys tours as a member of Van Halen. It is the 100th song on VH1s 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A greatest hits CD that actually is!,
At first, I was surprised that this greatest hits only had 12 songs on it. This CD clocks in at a cool 50 minutes and you get hit after hit. I’m surprised how much care seems to have been put into this collection since I read Sammy basically released it to fulfil a contract obligation. This compilation is primarily from his four mega-successful mid 80s solo albums when he left behind kinda silly party anthems like “Cruisin’ & Boozin” and “Trans Am Wonderland” for more intelligent tunes like “I’ll Fall in Love Again” and “Two Sides of Love”. Of course, there are plenty of tunes to bang your head and do air guitar to like “Heavy Metal”, “One Way to Rock”, and “I Don’t Need Love”.
Rock solid.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Sammy Hagar Unboxed,
Sammy Hagar Unboxed is full of great tunes. It collects 10 classic songs from Hagars years at Geffen records, and adds to new songs High Hopes and Buying My Way into Heaven. All the tracks on Unboxed come from Standing Hampton, Three Lock Box, Voa, and Sammy Hagar a.k.a. I Never Said Goodbye only overlooking HSAS Through the Fire that came out in between VOA and Sammy Hagar. Unboxed contains most of Hagars hits from 1982-1987. This man is a rock n roll icon, over three decades of rock and only a couple of single disc compilations for this guy!!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Sammy rocks!,
This is the ultimate Sammy collection for fans of his in the headbanging ’80s years. “High Hopes”, a new track which opens the collection, rocks as hard as anything on here–Sammy proves here that he still had it in or out of Van Halen. All the songs are standouts, particularly the classic “I Can’t Drive 55”, the fist-pumping “There’s Only One Way To Rock”, the searing “Three Lock Box”, and the catchy pop-rocker “Two Sides Of Love”. You truly can’t ask for a much more rocking and upbeat collection than this. A must-own for any fan of the Sammy Van Halen years or fans of the man himself.
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5.0 out of 5 stars The Best From ’81-87…………,
All Sammy Hagar fans must have this one. This has all of Sammys 80s stuff on here. If you are looking for 70s Sammy stuff, get the “Best Of…”(1992), but I have to say I love this collection more. I guess Its because I grew up listening to more of Sammy Hagar in the 80s. This has all the classics on here, mostly from the “Standing Hampton” (1981) album, buts that’s fine with me. Stuff like “Heavy Metal”, “Babys On Fire” and of course the timeless trademark Hagar track “I’ll Fall In Love Again” which is a classic. Plus Sammy throws in 2 new tracks to open the album up. This is a collection for both Hagar fans and metal fans alike. To be honest, I still haven’t put down this album yet. It rocks all the way man. Be true, play it loud and headbang for LIFE!!!!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Brings Back Great Memories of the 80s,
I must say that Sammy has to be my all time favorite solo rocker. His songs are all well written, sung and produced. His albums are consistent and you can always count on it being a favorite. This album contains hits from Standing Hampton, Three Lock Box and I Never Said Goodbye. It includes two great new songs too. They are in the style of his mid-80s sound and compliment the album perfectly. This album is highly recommended to anybody who likes 80s rock.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The red rockers unboxed cd is nothing but a ticket waiting to happen if you are driving down the road. There is no way you can drive 55 and listen to this cd. It will pump you up and keep you going catching yourself singing songs from this cd all day long!! Rock on Sammy!!!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Sammy Hagar,
A lot of good songs on this CD I was going to pick up standing hampton but this one has a lot of those songs plus a few others Heavy Metal clinched it for me
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5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Accomplished Rock Music Wordsmith Of His Day Or Any Day!,
“Suckers walk / Money talks / But it can’t touch my three-lock box.”
That, my friends, is just one sampling of the profoundly deep and thought-provoking lyrics found throughout this compilation honoring world class wordsmith Sammy Hagar, who was not only unquestionably the most erudite lyricist of his day but may be of any day. How about another so eloquently stated example:
“Crank up the drums / Crank out the bass / …Theres only one way to rock!”
As this quote demonstrates, one of Hagars lyrical strengths was how much he left open to interpretation–despite multiple suggestions contained within that particular composition, he ultimately leaves it to the listener to deduce that singular way to rock. There are so many layers of depth there. The man is also a master of every facet of wordplay in his poetry: oxymoron, onomatopoeia, puns, satire, dramatic irony, the list goes on.
And of course this volume contains his long-championed vehicular rebellion “I Can’t Drive 55”, the brilliance of which lingers on in the mind long after listening (“Take my license, all that jive” is still today a catchphrase among Hagar disciples).
But there is so much more to admire here. And it doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the poetry he penned as the singer for Van Halen–like “Its got what it takes / So tell me why can’t this be love”, or “You know my heart is true / Oh whoa, I can’t stop loving you”. It does not get deeper than that. Hagars poetry may not be the easiest to grasp on first listen, but that intellectual challenge is what keeps one coming back for more. You can keep Bob Dylan or Jim Morrison; for my money, no rock artist challenges the intellect like Sammy!
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5.0 out of 5 stars S.H. Unboxed,
A great buy for any Hagar fan. He could have made it a double disc set if he wanted to, as almost every review given here gives you at least one song that should have been on it.
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