5150

5150 is the California statute for holding those with grave mental disabilities involuntarily for 72 hours and sometimes longer pending further psychiatric evaluation. Many police departments across the U.S. use the term to indicate insanity in suspects. The album 5150, the song, and the studio are all named after this code.

5150 was Van Halen's seventh album (Warner Bros. 35394 [43:02]). It took three and a half months to record and was released on 03/24/86. 5150 spent 64 weeks on the charts and reached #1 on the U.S. charts three weeks after its release. This was Van Halen's first #1 album. On the U.K. charts, the album's highest position was #16. 6.9 million copies have been sold in the U.S. It was certified gold, platinum, and double platinum on 05/28/86; triple platinum on 10/10/86; quadruple platinum on 01/18/89; and platinum five times over on 08/17/94.

The album introduced the band's new lead singer, Sammy Hagar. Eddie originally toyed with the idea of having Patty Smyth take over as lead vocalist, but apparently she wasn't comfortable being in a band with three men. Australia's Jimmy Barnes was another proposed choice; however, Eddie felt Barnes wasn't right for the type of music he writes. Edward also tossed around the idea of doing an album with a different vocalist for each track. Singers considered included Phil Collins, Joe Cocker, Mike Rutherford and Pete Townsend, but it would have been a scheduling nightmare, and Alex convinced Eddie that it would work for only one album, which wouldn't be feasible.

The band decided against making videos for 5150 because they wanted the fans' first visual experience with Sammy Hagar to come from a live performance. Several videos were shown on MTV, most taken from Van Halen's first live video, Live without a Net, and a video made by the Blue Angels using Dreams as the accompanying music.

Longtime Van Halen producer Ted Templeman came to one band rehearsal and heard four or five songs, but was unable to produce 5150 because he already had a contract with David Lee Roth. Other producers considered included Quincy Jones, Nile Rodgers and Rupert Hine before the band selected Mick Jones, who was Sammy Hagar's idea.

Originally, the band wanted to name the album Best of Both Worlds, but decided against it because it might have been seen as misleading or as having some kind of religious connotation. 5150 was Sammy Hagar's idea.

Alex's drum kit was made primarily of Simmons electronic drums. The kit consisted of a double Simmons kick drum setup rounded out by five Simmons toms. This was all hooked to a Simmons SDS-5 through a Yamaha power amp. The setup also included a 61⁄2-inch-by-14-inch rosewood Tama snare. The head, like all of Alex's acoustic drum heads, was a taped Ludwig black dot. His Paiste cymbal setup included a 40-inch gong, a 24-inch ride, two 20-inch crashes, a 20- inch rude crash, a 20-inch China, and 15-inch Sound Edge High Hats. Most of the hardware was Ludwig with Ghost Pedals. His sticks of choice were Promark 5A oak sticks. The choice to go with electronic drums was due partly to the size of the 5150 Studio, which was too small to house a full-size acoustic kit. It has since been remodeled to accommodate a drum room.

Mike used a Spector J-Bass, an Apostrophe 5-string bass, and an 8-stringed aluminum-neck Kramer bass for most of this album. All of his bass lines on this album were recorded without a pick. His main amp was a Mesa Boogie D-180, run through a Flagg Systems bass reflex cabinet. He also used a Pearl Octaver.

Effects-wise, Eddie had his Echoplex, a Lexicon PCM 42, a TS Engineering Trigger, and a Roland DC 30 analog chorus/echo all at his disposal during recording. Add to that a Music Man Music Machine practice amp, a pair of Marshall heads on a single stack and a Laney KLIPP guitar head with a Guild/Hartke cabinet housing pushing four 10-inch speakers.

Keyboard-wise, Eddie's studio setup included one Steinway piano, which acted as a master keyboard to a MIDI setup that included a Prophet VS, a Roland D-50, a Yamaha DX711, a Yamaha TX816, and a MIDI-fied Oberheim OB-8. A Yamaha MJC8 (MIDI junction controller) directed the MIDI flow to and from the synthesizers and two Roland MC-500 sequencers. The TX816 consisted of eight tone modules that were routed through a Yamaha 8-channel mixer before being sent, along with the audio outputs of all the other synths, to a BOSS BX-800, which acted as Eddie's main keyboard mixer. Session ace Steve Porcaro served as Eddie's informal keyboard and sequencer advisor.

Tracks:

• Good Enough
• Why Can't This Be Love?
• Get Up
• Dreams
• Summer Nights
• Best of Both Worlds
• Love Walks In
• "5150"
• Inside

Singles/Promos:

Serial #: 920 463-0
Label: WEA
Tracks: A: Why Can't This Be Love? (extended version), B: Get Up
Country: Germany, France
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: W8740P
Label: WEA
Tracks: A: Why Can't This Be Love? (extended version), B: Get Up
Country: UK
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: 28740-7
Label: WB
Tracks: A: Why Can't This Be Love?, B: Get Up
Highest Chart Position: 3 (USA), 8 (UK)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 7" vinyl

Serial #: PRO-A- 2453
Label: WB
Tracks: Why Can't This Be Love? (promo), Why Can't This Be Love?
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: 7-28626
Label: WB
Tracks: Love Walks In (edit), Love Walks In (edit) (promo)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 7" vinyl

Serial #: PRO-A-2542
Label: WB
Tracks: Love Walks In (edit), Love Walks In (LP)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: PRO-A-2523
Label: WB 
Tracks: Summer Nights, Summer Nights (promo)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: 7-28702
Label: WB
Tracks: A: Dreams, B: Inside
Highest Chart Position: 22 (USA), 62 (UK)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 7" vinyl

Serial #: P-2120
Label: WEA
Tracks: A: Dreams (edit), B: Inside
Country: Japan
Release Date: 1986
Format: 7" vinyl

Serial #: 28626-7
Label: WB
Tracks: A: Love Walks In, B: Summer Nights
Highest Chart Position:  22 (USA, 10/04/86)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 7" vinyl

Serial #: PRO-A-2483
Label: WB
Tracks: Dreams (LP), Dreams (edit)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: W8642T
Label: WEA
Tracks: A: Dreams (extended), B: Inside
Country: UK
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl (VH patch included)

Serial #: W8624P
Label: WEA
Tracks: A: Dreams, B: Inside ("spacecar" picture disc)
Country: UK
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: PRO-A-2477
Label: WB
Tracks: A: Best of Both Worlds, B: Best of Both Worlds
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: PRO-A-2622
Label: WB
Tracks: A: Best of Both Worlds (live), B: Rock and Roll (live)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: PRO-A-2586
Label: WB
Tracks: A: "5150", B: "5150"
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 12" vinyl

Serial #: 7-28505-B
Label: WB
Tracks: Intro/Best of Both Worlds (from Live without a Net), Best of Both Worlds (edit)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 7" vinyl

Serial #: 7-28702
Label: WB
Tracks: Dreams (LP), Dreams (edit)
Country: USA
Release Date: 1986
Format: 7" vinyl

5150 was also the name of a Canadian Van Halen tribute band.