Van Halen’s never outdone its debut disc

Having Van Halen back on tour with original frontman David Lee Roth has me pulling out old discs again, enjoying favorites from “Running With the Devil” to “Beautiful Girls,” “Hot for Teacher” and “Everybody Wants Some!!”

It also has me thinking that Van Halen – not its Van Hagar incarnation – was/is a great band that never had an album to equal its debut. “Van Halen II” is a terrific sophomore effort, a close second to the debut, and subsequent albums contained several great songs – “Unchained,” “And the Cradle Will Rock,” “I’ll Wait,” “Panama” – but there’s no single disc as good as the not-a-clunker-in-the-bunch “Van Halen,” released in 1978.

Even Van Halen’s many cover songs, including “You’re No Good, “Pretty Woman” and “Dancing in the Street,” never reached the awesomeness of its debut-disc version of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me.”

It’s rare for a rock band with the longevity of Van Halen – playing July 9 at Concord Pavilion and July 16 at Shoreline Amphitheatre – not to match or surpass its debut. I’m not going so far as to call Foreigner a great band, but it had a very solid first album unmatched by later works. Other, better classic bands and solo artists generally had at least a few albums under their belts before arriving at masterpieces such as “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Who’s Next,” “Parallel Lines,” Rubber Soul, Pet Sounds”, etc.

Even as much as I love Talking Heads and its “Psycho Killer,” I can’t say “77” is a better album than “Remain in Light,” “Fear of Music” or “Speaking in Tongues.”

All of this is to get an exchange of thoughts going. I want to hear what readers think about other great bands that never surpassed their debuts. We may never agree on what the great artists and their best works are (I may even have lost you from the start with my assertions about Van Halen), but there has to be this ground rule: No one-hit wonders. Let’s agree the artist has to have at least four studio albums.

That just barely gets Guns N Roses in the door. I’m going to count the magnificent debut, “Appetite for Destruction,” “GN’R Lies,” “Use Your Illusion” volumes I and II and the awesome cover disc “The Spaghetti Incident?” But I won’t count “Chinese Democracy,” on which Axl Rose was the only remaining original band member. And I’m treating the “Use Your Illusion” discs as separate albums (they weren’t released as a double disc, after all).

So, have at it, let me know at jfarrow@modbee.com how on target, or way off, I am.

UPDATE: I got a lot of response from readers and from music fans reached through Facebook and Twitter.

Here’s a sampling of what they had to say:

“I’d say the Cars never surpassed their debut album,” wrote Clifton Gray. “ ‘Good Times Roll,’ ‘Just What I Needed,’ ‘My Best Friend’s Girl,’ ‘You’re All I’ve Got Tonight’ and ‘Bye Bye Love.’ One hell of a debut.”

Ron Higgins told me: “No brainer: Boston (the band) still touring. ...”

On Twitter, Sexy Surfing Couple chimed in: “I think that ‘VH1’ is without a doubt top 3 best debut albums ever, hands down, maybe top 2 or number 1.”

Trevor Taylor’s take? “I think ‘Fair Warning’ is their best album.”

The Roth Army (named in honor of David Lee, I’m figuring) tweeted: “ ‘Van Halen I’ changed the music world, while ‘1984’ was much more poppy.”

To which Greg Renoff responded: “The poppiness of ‘84’ is what made VH a household name. I think it’s certainly as good of an album as the debut.”

Renoff later reached out to me via email. He’s the author of the forthcoming book “Van Halen Rising: How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal.” He said he has “dedicated the last six years to making this book the last word on the band’s rise to fame.”

He added, “For the record, the debut is my favorite but it’s hard for me not to think that ‘1984’ matched it.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2015 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Van Halen’s never outdone its debut disc."