Sammy Hagar... overlooked as a great singer?

mystixboi1

mystixboi1

Kick Henry Jackassowski
I was watching some live clips of Sammy and he is such an awesome singer. He might not have the beautiful timbre like Freddie Mercury or Steve Perry, but he is a friggin powerful singer with a great range.

I love Van Hagar more than Halen and a big part of that is due to Sammy's voice.

Do you think he's overlooked as a great singer?
 
mystixboi1 said:
I was watching some live clips of Sammy and he is such an awesome singer. He might not have the beautiful timbre like Freddie Mercury or Steve Perry, but he is a friggin powerful singer with a great range.

I love Van Hagar more than Halen and a big part of that is due to Sammy's voice.

Do you think he's overlooked as a great singer?
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I always liked Sammy, even going back to his Montrose days. I thought he did a great job with VH and never understood why he got bashed so much.
 
Great, idk, but then again I'm sort of picky on who I would call "great".

He is damned good though and I like his work, even Van Hagar. I think they were underrated as a seperate entity.
 
I do not think he's overlooked as a great singer, but his flavor of music has fallen greatly out of favor. Eighties rock has a niche following of folks that grew up on it, but it is once again not fondly remembered like the music of '60s, '70s, and '90s. It had a moment of resurgence thanks to Journey and the first VH reunion tour with Roth (and what was that play and movie?), but that's all lost its luster as well.

This is not to say it won't come around again, but right now Hagar's solo stuff and Van Hagar are not something people are particularly excited about. Objectively, though, I thinks it's hard to not appreciate his ability regardless of whether you like his music or the timbre of his voice. Subjectively, I think he's one of the great rock singers, but his music doesn't hold up like Plant's, Mercury's, Daltrey's, Macca's, Cornell's, etc.
 
Honkridge said:
I don't hate Sammy but for me he sucked all the fun out of Van Halen. Yeah he's got pipes...so what, tell it to Simon.
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I saw DLR in '86 and VH in '88 and they were both very fun shows. Dave is definitely more of a clown, but Sammy has a lot of fun and know how to work a crowd, he just does it differently. Neither guy was a great lyricist though.

What I find sucks the fun out of VH? It's Roth's inability to sing. It's so sad watching most of the live clips from various reunion shows.
 
I don’t think he’s overlooked. Plenty of people like his singing. But he just doesn’t want to do big projects anymore, so people don’t pay attention. I can’t say I blame him. At my age I’d rather slap my name on liquor and chain restaurants than work in the music biz and go on tour. And I’m thirty years younger.
 
i'm a fan of the Red Rocker. always have been. i liked his voice with Montrose, even tho i didn't like Montrose or his songs.
but when Sammy went on his own, he really became something. Standing Hampton is a great album with lots of great hooks.
and Sammy ain't a slouch player either.
and he's a blast on stage.
 
Sammy was one of the names I brought up while we discussed the difference between being a great singer and having a great voice. It's rare to possess both qualities.

Sammy has incredible range and control compared to most, but he doesn't have a "great" voice. Roth had a great voice, but was a shitty singer. He completely ruined his voice very early on. The live shows with DLR wouldn't have been listenable if not for Michael Anthony.

And the pilots was laid to da bone holme!
 
jp_nyc said:
I don’t think he’s overlooked. Plenty of people like his singing. But he just doesn’t want to do big projects anymore, so people don’t pay attention. I can’t say I blame him. At my age I’d rather slap my name on liquor and chain restaurants than work in the music biz and go on tour. And I’m thirty years younger.
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Chickenfoot could have been a HUGE project if it happened right after he left VH the first time...maybe. Sammy with Joe and Chad would have grabbed quite a bit of attention. I'm betting they thought it would be bigger than it was, but they seem to have fun regardless.
 
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