OU812

OU812
Studio album by Van Halen
Released	May 24, 1988
Recorded	September 1987 – April 1988
Studio	5150 Studios, Studio City, California
Genre	Hard rock
Length	50:09
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Van Halen, Donn Landee
Van Halen chronology
5150 (1986) OU812 (1988) For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
Singles from OU812
"Black and Blue" Released: May 1988 "When It's Love" Released: June 1988 "Finish What Ya Started" Released: September 1988

OU812 (pronounced "Oh You Ate One Too") is the eighth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1988, and the second to feature vocalist Sammy Hagar. Van Halen started work on the album in September 1987 and completed it in April 1988, just one month before its release.

Production

Once the tour for 5150 was over, Eddie Van Halen had some riffs he had been working on and Sammy Hagar "had a bunch of lyrics in notebooks that I had been thinking about and writing", so they decided to work on another album soon. While the album acknowledges Van Halen for writing and performing and Landee for recording, there was no production credit because according to Hagar, "the band pretty much produced the album ourselves. And we weren't producers, in the sense that we went in with an idea and told everybody what to do and took control. There just wasn't a producer." The only cover version on the album, of Little Feat's "A Apolitical Blues", was coincidentally also done by Templeman and Landee, to the point the engineer used the same setup to record Van Halen's version.

When Hagar was brought to the studio, Eddie showed a piano and drums demo he recorded with Alex Van Halen, which the band soon developed into the song "When It's Love". Given the musical parts were finished quicker than the lyrics, Hagar took some weeks off and travelled to his Mexican house at Cabo San Lucas to work on more songs. There he found the inspiration for the song "Cabo Wabo", which borrowed the melody of "Make It Last", a song Hagar composed for his previous band Montrose, and whose title later named Hagar's nightclub in the city. The last song to be developed was "Finish What Ya Started", which Eddie and Hagar composed one night late into the production. However, the last track to which Hagar recorded his vocals was the eventual album opener "Mine All Mine", as he felt unsure about the lyrics. The deeper metaphysical lyrics to "Mine All Mine" were rewritten seven times, with Hagar saying "it was the first time in my life I ever beat myself up, hurt myself, punished myself, practically threw things through windows, trying to write the lyrics." Although it was considered a joke song, "Source of Infection" was written about Eddie's hospitalization with dengue fever during his vacation in Australia in April 1988, celebrating his seventh wedding anniversary with Valerie Bertinelli.

The working title was Bone, which Alex hated. Hagar then decided on OU812 after seeing this on the side of a delivery truck on the freeway and finding it funny (rumors persist, though, that the title was a disguised response to the title of David Lee Roth's 1986 solo album, Eat 'Em and Smile). The album's front cover is an homage to the classic cover of With the Beatles. The cover is also similar to that of Blue Cheer's Vincebus Eruptum (1968) and King Crimson's Red (1974). Album artwork for the back cover is Hugo Rheinhold's statuette Affe mit Schädel.

The track listing on the back cover is arranged in alphabetical order, instead of in sequence on some releases.

The album is dedicated to Eddie and Alex Van Halen's father, Jan, who died on December 9, 1986, at the age of 66. The inner linings of the album include the words, "This one's for you, Pa". Jan had previously appeared playing clarinet on one track, "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)", on Van Halen's 1982 album, Diver Down.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Robert Christgau	C
Rolling Stone
Ultimate Guitar

Reviews for OU812 were initially mixed. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau rated the album a C, which signifies "a record of clear professionalism or barely discernible inspiration, but not both." He noted that "trading Dave for Sammy sure wrecked their shot at Led Zep of the '80s--master guitarist, signature vocalist, underrated rhythm section." However, he stated: "Eddie's obsessed with technique, Roth's contemptuous of technique, rhythm section's got enough technique and no klutz genius. But Sammy . . . like wow. If I can't claim the new boy owns them [...], you can't deny he defines them."

Rolling Stone's David Fricke rated the album three-and-a-half out of five stars. He said of "Source of Infection": "While Eddie Van Halen sprays you with a machine-gun succession of speed-metal-guitar arpeggios, Sammy Hagar sends out the party invitations with his usual savoir-faire — "Hey! All right! Whoo!" Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony, of course, take him at his word, shooting into hyper-beat space before you can say, "Jump."" He noted that "Van Halen, contrary to purist grumbling, did not wimp out when Diamond Dave hit the bricks. Nor did the band go — ugh! — pop: the 5150 ladies' choice "Why Can't This Be Love" wasn't really a ballad; it was more like Big Rock Melancholia. In fact, all the 5150-model Van Halen did was replace one mighty mouth with another and trot out some hip, new songwriting tricks." Still, he stated that "the curve balls [...] don't always hit the strike zone. "Finish What Ya Started" is an unexpected turn into wheat-field-rock country." Despite this, he concluded that "maybe Eddie and company haven't been pushing the envelope, so to speak, far enough in terms of songwriting. But "Mine All Mine" is a good teaser for the future, the slow stuff is classy radio fare, and at its best, OU812 is a veritable feast of great white rock & roll wow."

A retrospective review from AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine was fairly positive. Erlewine stated that "when David Lee Roth fronted the band, almost everything that Van Halen did seemed easy – as big, boisterous, and raucous as an actual party – but Van Hagar makes good times seem like tough work here." Still, he stated that "the riffs are complicated, not catchy, the rhythms plod, they don't rock, and Sammy strains to inject some good times by singing too hard." However, he concluded that "if it isn't as good as Fair Warning (even if it's nearly not as much fun), it's nevertheless the best showcase of the instrumental abilities of Van Hagar."

Track listing

All tracks are written by Van Halen, except where noted

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Mine All Mine"	5:11
2.	"When It's Love"	5:36
3.	"A.F.U. (Naturally Wired)"	4:28
4.	"Cabo Wabo"	7:04
5.	"Source of Infection"	3:58
6.	"Feels So Good"	4:27
7.	"Finish What Ya Started"	4:20
8.	"Black and Blue"	5:24
9.	"Sucker in a 3 Piece"	5:52
10.	"A Apolitical Blues" (Lowell George)	3:50

Note

• "A Apolitical Blues" was absent from the cassette and vinyl pressings.

Personnel

Van Halen

• Sammy Hagar – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Eddie Van Halen – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Michael Anthony – bass, backing vocals
• Alex Van Halen – drums, percussion

Production

• Van Halen – producers
• Donn Landee – producer, engineer
• Ken Deane – assistant engineer
• Bobby Hata – mastering
• Jeri Heiden – art direction
• Maura P. McLaughlin – art direction
• Eika Aoshima – photography
• Stuart Watson – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1988)	Peak position
US Billboard 200	1

Singles

Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1988	"Black and Blue"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
		The Billboard Hot 100	34
	"Cabo Wabo"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	31
	"Feels So Good"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	6
	"Finish What Ya Started"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	2
		Billboard Hot 100	13
	"When It's Love"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
		Billboard Hot 100	5
	"Mine All Mine"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	50
1989	"Feels So Good"	Billboard Hot 100	35

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)	Silver	60,000^
United States (RIAA)	4× Platinum	4,000,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.