Hey guys welcome to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is in the
singing. I'm doing this series in the series is
called What Makes This Singer Great. Before we get started if you wouldn't
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and these the greatness of a lot of these different singers and we break it down
in hopes to help make you a better singer for those that are interested. You
can find it right here at Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy.com.
Join my free singing forums and just kind of kick the tires a little bit and
see if it's right for you. So I want to do a vocal coach reaction to my cousin
Sammy Hagar and, and again the series is called What Makes This Singer
great and as I've said multiple times I don't think it's just about the actual
singing of the singer, though we're gonna get to that but what do you think of
when you think of the singer or this vocalist so. You know for me I go way
back with Sam of course and you know I think of early days you know Ronnie
Montrose right, "Rock The Nation", "Rock Candy", "Bad Motor Scooter" you know that
was where he's kind of first started out and so you have this again fantastic
guitar player, he partnered with Ronnie Montrose and you know he put his magical
vocals around right and I think most people probably know of him through Van
Halen and I want to talk about that in a second but let's not forget that Sam was
a great songwriter before that, a great songwriter after that, and also wrote
some great songs with Van Halen but I want to juxtapose the two of Sammy and
Van Halen because Van Hagar and original Van Halen are two completely different
things so we're gonna touch on that in a second but when I think also of Sam I
think if "I Can't Drive 55" so kind of rallying the troops it's kind of a
political thing and it worked right so 55 got raised across the country not
sure it was directly related him but there was certainly that. The other thing
too is you know the Rick Springfield song (sings)
right he wrote that. Think of him as the
Red Rocker of course which is kind of not so much anymore. Songs like (sings)
right. I did a vocal coach reaction to
Sam so I'll put that in the description, I sang a couple pieces and you see
how, see how I did and eventually I'll get around to singing some songs
probably Van Halen stuff but anyways I think of Montrose. Now let's talk
about original Van Halen and when Sam joined the band okay.
The dichotomy of this and the interesting thing when I juxtapose
the two is, Sam was kind of a party band guy you know Ford truck, tray, back of
the trailer having a good time you know middle America rock kind of guy and Van
Halen was a party band you know right. So they were both kind of in that party band
ish sort of thing and what's weird about it is when Sam joined Van Halen, it
became much more of a corporate rock kind of sound. Now my understanding is
that there is actually more number-one singles in Van Halen when Sam joined the
band so he definitely took it up a notch from the songwriting standpoint but I
think where people kind of can't quite put, get their arms around or brain
around, put their finger on, what was the real difference. A lot of people blame
Sam wasn't as great a stage person as David Lee Roth or vice versa or whatever,
David wasn't as great as singer as Sam. Let's kind of take a look at this and
dissect it a little bit. If you take original Van Halen songs and I'm a
guitar player it's my first instrument. I think if like "Jamie's Crying" (sings)
right, very guitar riff driven music. Really ,think about "Drop-Dead Legs"
you know (sounds). You know Spanish guitars (sounds)
right. Think about drop dead or I just said
dropped dead, think about "Beautiful Girls" (sounds)
right. Everything or most all those songs, think about "Running
With The Devil" (sounds) heavily guitar riff driven music. Then fast forward into the
Van Hagar era not so much, not so much at all in fact there was some but for the
most part it was really song driven and production driven and whatnot. So the
party band then kind of went away and it became much more corporate and so that's
kind of what I think of when I think of Van Halen. Now the other thing I
think about Sam, is Sam has always been a great businessman so we're gonna talk
about his vocals. I put you know a little song montage together we'll get to that
in a second talk about the actual singing but you know early on Sam had a travel agency to
rock stars and he did very very well at that and then let's think about Cabo
Wabo you know his business down in Mexico right. Even down to his concerts
where waitress, bring me a drink you know what I mean the whole set, the
whole stage is Cabo Wabo basically right or has been for years so he drove traffic
down there and created his own empire down in Mexico, Another thing is his
tequila line or his alcohol line I should say that he sold I think for 80 million dollars
and if I'm not mistaken he made more money on selling his alcohol brand then
he has made money in the music business as an artist. That's kind of interesting.
Now of course his restaurants Cabo Wabo and stuff that he's franchised and so forth
so but anyways I wanted to get to kind of like what I think of when I think of
Sam and let's get to the music here and him as a singer, so here we go.
Ok so I think of you know high range belting singing. You know we think about
you know and again we've talked about Van Halen songs you know "When It's
Love", "Why Can't This Be Love", "Love Comes Walking In", "Pound Cake". You know
different stuff like that. Big, high range vocals. Now I think this is the highest
range stuff that Sam has ever done or maybe ever will do was what he did in Van
Halen and just did a fabulous job and come on guys let's be realistic about
this, very hard to step in to the boots of David Lee Roth whether you like his
voice or whatever or not, as an artist he was quite the character, funny as heck,
great frontman and really was a face for Van Halen. So I really want to kind of
point that out too and I'm gonna do one on David Lee Roth soon and we'll talk
about you know what he contributed to that band and then his vocal prowess but
let's continue.
Okay so again I think kind of a squeeze, street singing but great kind of like
almost in the Coverdale you know high range belting sort of thing and as a huge
influence of mine. So anyway guys I'm doing this by request for the most part
so if you can tell me what you think of when you think of Sammy. Put it in the
comments section, what did I miss. I want to get this well, real
well-rounded and I'm doing this mostly by request gang so if there's an artist
that you want me to do or a singer you want me to do, please put that in the
description as well and check this out we've got another video coming your way.