Songs where the guitar player obviously copies Eddie Van Halen

[JUNGLE DRUMMER]

This guy even looked like EVH ...

I miss Vito. Liked his playing more than the rest of the 80s guys who were inspired by Ed. And a humble sweet guy by all accounts. He deserved a less wimpy singer than Mike Tramp.

[I Coulda Hada VH]

That's for sure. But lets not get into the 80's hair metal wankers, please.

Give me those 80's hair metal wankers over Childish Gambino any day.

[DJ Work'in Hard]

Ace's outro on Shock Me on Alive II. Tipton's solo on Hell Bent for Leather both in '78. Neither was at EVH level, but both were very keen to what was about to happen.

[MF5150]

Give me those 80's hair metal wankers over Childish Gambino any day.

Different strokes.

[I Coulda Hada VH]

Different strokes.

I think I would need to have a stroke which made me deaf to appreciate Childish Gambino.

[track 5]

To roughly quote the great Eddie Van Halen. "No one really did it, till I did it...now everyone does it!" Out.

[Raldo]

Radar Love by White Lion

[ziggysmalls]

[BlindtotheWorld]

The fills during the verses are totally Eddie inspired/copied. I can't complain beceuase it fits and makes the song better.

[ziggysmalls]

I always dug this solo and always forget to look up who played it. Guess his name is Michael Byron-Hehir. Know nothing of him. Anyway this was released in 1984 and always thought this guy was trying to channel EVH of Beat It/1984. Even some of the rhythm playing has a EVH tone of that era. That said unlike Roxy Blue, just think its a cool interpretation of EVH style.

[Little Dreamer]

This more like blatant forgery.

[ScottyBHarris]

Pretty much everything Vito did with White Lion

George Lynch also comes to mind, Mr. Scary, Burning Like a Flame

Motley Crue Kick Start my Heart

[Zahzoo]

When you think about it... especially now... EVH being an influencer for so many guitar players is just a testament to his impact on the genre.

[ziggysmalls]

I probably have posted this some other time but here is a different way to view Eddie's influence on music.

1. VH tours and opens for Black Sabbath. Ozzy is impressed at this guitarist from LA.
2. Ozzy gets fired and wants Gary Moore. Gets turned down. Then figures out he wants a LA guitarist because that is where EVH was from
3. Settles on Randy. Randy does his thing and Ozzy's career comes up from the grave. A solo career which may have resembled a Marq Torrien solo venture now makes Ozzy bigger than the band he was fired from. Him opening for Black Sabbath required Ozzy to have hot shot guitarists. Jake E Lee leaves RATT. Warren joins RATT. RATT eventually gets big . Zakk gets hired and pinch harmonics never were heard in such glory. Ok little joke:-) Hearing EVH raised the
standard if what Ozzy wanted with a guitarist. Every band needed a hot shot guitarist
4. Quiet Riot without Randy becomes the Kevin DuBrow band. They are signed due to residual fallout from the success of other LA bands like VH.
5. Quiet Riot agrees to do a cover of Come on Feel the Noise. This song with Def Leppard open the flood gates for the first wave of melodic heavy metal
6. Flash forward a few months to 1984. Van Halen releases a song that only Eddie wanted to do. Jump. A hard rock/heavy metal band just put out a keyboard pop song. Then I'll Wait. BOOM now its cool to have hard rock/heavy metal bands to add keyboards
7. Flash forward a year and Motley Crue releases Home Sweet Home. Now every band will have keys in songs.
8. At the same time mags were coming out with accurate guitar tablature. Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Guitar World. Eddie Van Halen was the reason for such popularity. While both mags did cover all genres, they were really catered to hard rock and heavy metal guitarists. Pretty much every aspiring guitarist would buy these mags. These mags even were popular during the grunge phase and later. Different names, different genres but it all started because Eddie was the guy. His issues had the highest sales. So those kids who wanted to learn Smells LIke Teen Sprit, Crossroads, Couldn't Stand the Weather, Rolin', Wonderful Tonight or Slow dancing in a burning room, all owe it to Eddie. I probably have 150 from 1983 to 2018.

Not only did the guy change the way guitar was played, music had changed because of him. Indirectly to a degree but a decade of music followed his lead. This is why Rolling Stone polls can kiss my ass.

[I Coulda Hada VH]

Where have I heard this riff before?