Alex Van Halen

Greatly Appreciated

ALEX VAN HALEN
 
 
Alex Van Halen  (born May 8, 1953) is a Dutch-American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen.  Originally, his brother Eddie played drums, while Alex practiced guitar.  After spending time playing Eddie’s drum kit, Alex became more skillful at the drums than Eddie.  In 1974, the Van Halen brothers, David Lee Roth, and Michael Anthony formed a band, simply called Van Halen.  They were signed to Warner Brothers in 1977 and released their debut album in 1978.  The two brothers are the only members of Van Halen who have been in the band for its entire duration.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

The soundtrack for the Roger Corman film The Wild Angels (1966) was a breakthrough for Davie Allan and the Arrows and yielded their biggest hit song, “Blues’ Theme”.  From Wikipedia:  “The song from the film’s opening, ‘Blues’ Theme’ (sometimes listed as ‘Blue’s Theme’), an aggressive, repetitive and very catchy instrumental showcasing [Davie] Allan’s new fuzzed-out (heavily distorted) guitar sound became their biggest hit (it was also one of the first songs Eddie Van Halen learned to play on brother Alex [Van Halen]’s guitar).  The song stayed on the Billboard charts for 17 weeks (it peaked at #37); the single, backed with ‘Bongo Party’, and the soundtrack album [The Wild Angels] both sold well.  Rumors have stated that the melody in Blues’ Theme was stolen from the Monkees’ guitar lick in Last Train to Clarksville; but ‘Last Train to Clarksville was recorded on July 25th, 1966, and The Wild Angels debuted in the theaters on July 20th, 1966.” 

 

(December 2014)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021