Van Halen III

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, and is commonly said to be Van Halen’s most unpopular album; 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 in 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” 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 is the longest Van Halen studio track, at 8 minutes and 42 seconds. Also, one particular song, “That’s Why I Love You”, from the VH3 sessions, was leaked to the public before the album went on sale, but the band’s deeper appreciation for another song (“Josephina”, named after Gary’s mother) caused it to replace the former on the lineup and supposedly was the reason why the album release was postponed three more weeks.