Van Halen III

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Van Halen III
Studio album by Van Halen
Released	March 17, 1998
Recorded	1997
Genre	Hard rock
Length	65:47
Language	English
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Mike Post, Edward Van Halen
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
Van Halen chronology
Balance (1995) Van Halen III (1998)

Van Halen III is the eleventh studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1998. It is the only Van Halen album to feature Gary Cherone on lead vocals. The album's title was a pun on the fact that this was Van Halen's third recorded line-up, and the band's first two albums having been titled Van Halen and Van Halen II. No songs from it are featured on The Best of Both Worlds, the band's 2004 greatest hits compilation, and the album itself is not even listed on the band's discography.

The album's only significant radio hit was "Without You", which reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on the March 7, 1998 issue of Billboard, and remained at #1 for six weeks. Other songs receiving airplay on rock radio were "Fire in the Hole" (help·info) and "One I Want". The album's final song, "How Many Say I", was an unusual acoustic piano ballad featuring guitarist Eddie Van Halen (mostly) on lead vocals with Gary Cherone doing vocals with him at the chorus. "Year to the Day" is also featured.

This album also contributed the song "Fire in the Hole" to the Lethal Weapon 4 movie soundtrack.

As of January 2009, this album is no longer in print. ^[1]

[edit] Track listing

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

1. "Neworld" – 1:51
2. "Without You" – 6:37†
3. "One I Want" – 5:35†
4. "From Afar" – 5:29
5. "Dirty Water Dog" – 5:33
6. "Once" – 7:51
7. "Fire in the Hole" – 5:37†
8. "Josephina" – 5:48
9. "Year to the Day" – 8:47
10. "Primary" – 1:31
11. "Ballot or the Bullet" – 5:48
12. "How Many Say I" – 6:16

† denotes a single

[edit] Personnel

Van Halen

• Michael Anthony – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Gary Cherone – lead vocals
• Alex Van Halen – percussion, drums
• Eddie Van Halen – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, lead vocals and piano on "How Many Say I"

Additional musicians

• Matthew Bruck – guitar
• Mike Post – piano on "Neworld"

Production

• Producers: Mike Post, Eddie Van Halen
• Engineers: Erwin Musper, Eddie Van Halen
• Mixing: The Edward, Robbes
• Mastering: The Edward, Robbes, Eddy Schreyer
• Programming: Florian Ammon, Ian Dye, Ed Rogers, Paul Wight
• Art direction: Stine Schyberg
• Photography: Dan Chavkin
• Coloring: F. Scott Schafer

Michael Anthony revealed in an interview^{[citation needed]} that he only played on three tracks—"Without You", "One I Want" and "Fire in the Hole"—and that the rest of the album's bass work was performed by Eddie Van Halen. Anthony is still part of the shared songwriting credits, and appeared on the videos to "Without You" and "Fire in the Hole."

[edit] Sales charts

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

Album

Billboard (North America)

Singles

Billboard (North America)

[edit] References