Van Halen Music:

		List Price: $29.98		Label: Warner Bros / Wea Salesrank: 257718 Released: March 17, 1998
		Our Price: $17.23
		Used Price: $1.62
		Media: Audio CD

Van Halen III [Limited Edition] Track Listing:
1. Neworld
2. Without You
3. One I Want
4. From Afar
5. Dirty Water Dog
6. Once
7. Fire in the Hole
8. Josephina
9. Year to the Day
10. Primary
11. Ballot or the Bullet
12. How Many Say I

Editorial Review:
Special Japanese edition of their 1998 album & first with ex-Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone. Limited to the initial pressing only, it comes packaged in an oversized slipcase with the disc in a standard jewel case, plus a 20 page booklet featuring a discography, photos, a biography (in Japanese) and replica autographs. Musically, it's the same as the U.S. edition. 12 tracks, including the single 'Without You'. A Warner Brothers release. Mike Post (theme to TV's 'L.A. Law') produced the record.

Description of Van Halen III [Limited Edition]:
Having jettisoned yet another lead singer, casting off meat-and-potatoes rocker Sammy Hagar for leaner, cleaner former Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone, Van Halen ushers in its third incarnation with the appropriately titled 3. Trouble is, as a lyricist, Cherone too often speaks from the head, not the heart, filling the album with political cant that is dry and ill-suited to the band's party-hearty image. Worse, Cherone sounds disconcertingly like Hagar, giving 3 the uncomfortable feel of a tribute album. And while Eddie Van Halen's guitar still mows down anything in sight on tracks like "Neworld" and "From Afar," it's difficult to excuse his new-agey keyboard epic "How Many Say I," or his tentative lead vocal on the track. In a rare instance for a great band, it's one step forward, two steps back. --Daniel Durchholz

Van Halen III [Limited Edition] Reviews:
3rd time is not the charm.
2009-11-10 - Setting aside for a moment the sheer absurdity of replacing their lead singer for a 3rd time, this album is a poor attempt to keep the VH moniker alive and to continue Warner Brother's cash cow relationship with the band. By hiring Hagar sound-alike Gary Cherone (a talented vocalist but hardly an ideal replacement for either Hagar or Roth), Eddie and Co. manage to sound like a Van-Hagar tribute band rather than a new incarnation of VH Proper. Not to mention the weakness of the songs and the penchant for politically-charged lyrics (I'd even take "Poundcake" over this tripe). I think it's time for Eddie to either move on to solo albums or else retire to some tropical island and depend on his back catalog and his wife's Lifetime-TV royalties to keep the cash rolling in.


III is not a charm, but yet it is
2009-10-18 - Folks, I felt compelled to give a review for this album, I usually don't do these things but this album needs some honest help. Someone needs to speak the truth about this album for better or worse and there is a bit of both to be honest. Ironically I think there are more reviews coming to this albums aid than any of the other VH albums, so add mine as one more, but I am going to be as real as it can get.

I have been a VH fan since Jr. High when OU812 came out, top 40 pop was bubblegum so I decided to check out this guitarist Eddie VH I had heard so much about. Now of course I was aware of Jump and Panama, Hot For the teacher and the other radio hits. Back then it was still cassettes and the "cassingles" had become popular. So I got the When Its Love cassingle and really liked the song but the guitar playing while great only seeemed like a hint of what there really was. So I listened to the other side, Cabo Wabo I think it was, HOLY #$%#!!!! Now we are talking. So I bought OU812, OK this is gooooooooooooood stuff. So I buy all the others over time starting the the first Van Halen and going in order. Been hooked ever since.

Now I have no musical ability, never learned to play an instrument, a regret, but I know what I like to hear. Guitars, and the louder and more accomplished the guitar player is, the better. And no one touches Eddie. Eddie can do no wrong with a guitar, remember I said with a guitar. And all the negative shots at VH for being just a party and good time with chicks band, I don't get. I LOVED that about them. While every other band felt the need to sing about all that is wrong with the world, especially grunge, they played the crap out of that record, VH reminded you why rock and roll was fun and there are good times in life to enjoy. We all know there are pitfalls in life. I don't need a song to remind me. And its ironic I got hooked on them from a Hagar album because the Roth era really is THE era for VH. But Hagars time was good,it was the time they moved or started to move from the party vibe to more seriouse topics, but not so much there still wasn't the fun stuff we loved about the mighty VH. And once again Eddie could do no wrong with the
guitar.

Enter Gary Cherone for VHIII. Weak choice, very weak choice. I dig Extreme but for the mighty Van Halen, mighty weak. This is a whole other debate but if the next singer was not going to be Roth or Hagar returning, I was rooting for Skid Row's former guy Sebastian Bach. I'm telling you Roth was THE front man of all time, he had more vocals than he gets credit for and he had more balls and attitude than he could ever get credit for, and those were things the VH albums were needing a shot of badly. Bach is the only lead guy of late that had even a touch of what DLR had, and he would have brought a major set of pipes. I don't think he ever got a sniff from the band, but like many fans I was tryiing to guess who the "next" guy would be. Then they choose Cherone. And now after all that here is the low down on VHIII.

Lyrically and vocally, this CD is lame. Like, I got my legs pinned under a street smoother and a rabid wolverine came and gnawed them off and now I am lame, lame. That being said, I don't care what some of these other reviews are saying I am telling you, this is some of the freshest and most inspired guitar playing we have heard from Eddie in a loooooooong time. Some, if not a lot of it will sound experimental, maybe too much so for a lot of people. I don't know who to blame the lyrics on. I have heard Cherone wrote some lyrics, I have heard this is full boar Eddie's baby lyrics and all. Roth got his way going cover tune crazy on DIver Down and this was Eddies shot at doing it his way. If so Eddie I have only one thing to say about the lyrics and that is, you can do no wrong with the guitar. I will place the guitar playing and solo to VHIII's A Year To the Day up against anything Eddie has ever done with the exception of Eruption and maybe,again MAYBE Little Guitars. If Roth sings this song everyone would have ate it up like krispy Kreems. In fact I could hear a lot of the songs on this particualr CD being sung by Roth and he would pull them off. I could never say that about any Hagar albums. But hey, don't just take my word for it. Check out You Tube, there are some concert footages of them perfroming this song with Cherone. Check out Eddie, Eddie performed it with the Eddie of old. I have seen him many times, and until this latest concert tour with Roth returning, I had not seen that energy and intensity in any of the Hagar concerts.

Now, fair warning, pun absolutley intended, if you can ignore the "I will never get that 45 minutres of my life back" lyrics and vocals but want to hear the old Eddie guitar passion with some fresh and unique sound, you will dig this album.

You are just mad about the lead singer! Get over it!
2009-09-17 - This is a great album! Those who don't like it need to get over it. Great and expanded guitar playing by the best ever, Eddie Van Halen. You little cry babies who are so upset over David Lee and Sammy need to check your loser selves. Quit crying lake the girls you are and actually listen to this album! If you are a fan of the greatest guitarist ever then you must purchase this album! Better than all the previewing losers say it is!

Some of Eddie's best playing and deepest creativity...
2009-09-06 - I am going to keep it short here. If you're a true Van Halen fan or shall I say...true Eddie Van Halen fan....this album is not to be missed. Sure, Gary's singing can grate on you at times and it's not full of stadium pop rock party songs. It is Eddie and the boys feeling creative and free and it's got some of Eddie's greatest guitar playing on it ever. It's worth it just to listen to his love of playing. Here's to wishing Eddie will release more instrumental albums. If this is a preview of all the different things he's got laying around 5150, then let us have them please!!!!

A muddy mess.
2009-08-12 - I think a lot of the problems with this album lie in the poor production and sound mix. There isn't enough seperation between the different instruments or vocals. It's just one big muddy mess. And Gary Cherone - I don't know if he's trying too hard to sound like Hagar, not trying hard enough, or if he's just another victim of the album's bad mix... but I can't understand a word the guy is screaming. Eddie's classic guitar sound is practically nonexistent and I think they left Michael Anthony out of the mix altogether. Alex's drums sound like they were recorded thru a transistor radio. Like I said - the sound is flat, flat, flat. Sure there's problems in the songwriting dept. too, but I think a lot of blame lies in the sound.