Remembering the godawful album cover that was nearly Van Halen’s debut

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 19, 2015

By Steve Newton

In a story posted on the Ultimate Classic Rock website today, rock historian Greg Renoff—who has a book on Van Halen coming out this year—writes about the artwork that almost became the cover of the band’s monumental debut album of 1978.

Apparently, the powers-that-be at the group’s label, Warner Bros., wanted it to have more of a punk-rock/new-wave image than a heavy-metal one.

Wouldn’t that have been a major f**k up!

Plus, the photo they had lined up looks pretty bogus. As Renoff points out, frontman David Lee Roth is not in the front—drummer Alex Van Halen is the focus of the shot—and it looks like wildman Roth has dozed off. Bassist Michael Anthony, far left, “looks like he wants to cry”.

“They tried to make us look like the Clash,” Eddie Van Halen later told Guitar World magazine.

Also, the logo is a hunk ‘o junk. It looks more like Vanhalan.

Thank god the band and its management stood up to the label and nixed that cover so they could use this one:

Now that’s what I call rockin’.

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