"Finish What Ya Started" is a song by
Van Halen
Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...
taken from their 1988 album ''
OU812
''OU812'' (pronounced "Oh You Ate One Too") is the eighth studio album by American rock band Van Halen. It was released in 1988 and is the band’s second album to feature vocalist Sammy Hagar. Van Halen began work on the album in September 1987 ...
''.
Background
Despite the album being seemingly complete,
Eddie Van Halen came up with the riff at 2 in the morning and went down to his then-neighbor
Sammy Hagar
Samuel Roy Hagar (born October 13, 1947), also known as the Red Rocker, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose and subsequently launched a successful solo car ...
to show it. Hagar let Eddie in, and the two played guitars in his balcony until they had a completed song. Once Eddie left, Hagar decided to write the lyrics despite being late at night. The theme wound up being unfulfilled sex, summed up by Hagar as "
blue balls
Blue balls is slang for an uncomfortable testicular sensation that can occur during a state of male sexual arousal. The term is thought to have originated in the United States, first appearing in 1916. Another slang term used for the conditio ...
".
Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga
' In the song, Eddie recorded his guitar part on a
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuousl ...
plugged direct into the studio mixing console. The song is one of only two Van Halen tracks featuring Hagar playing a rhythm guitar part, which he played on a
Gibson acoustic.
Music video
The official
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
for the song was directed by
Andy Morahan
Andrew Douglas Morahan (born 11 August 1958) is a British commercial, film and music video director. He is the son of director Christopher Morahan and the half-brother of actress Hattie Morahan.
Married to Joanna Lewis, he has two children.
...
.
It features the band playing against a plain white background with quick cuts to women dancing. The version of the song on their 2004 compilation ''
The Best of Both Worlds'' stops midway through the outro, unlike the fade out on the ''OU812'' version.
Reception
''
Cash Box'' called it "a remarkable single...that owes more to
T-Rex
''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...
and
Creedence than to a
Whitesnake
Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own en ...
."
In 1988, the song peaked at #13 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #2 on the ''
Billboard''
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
chart.
In popular culture
The song was later used as theme music for the short-lived 1990 sitcom ''
Sydney'', which starred Eddie Van Halen's then-wife,
Valerie Bertinelli
Valerie Anne Bertinelli (born April 23, 1960) is an American actress. She first achieved recognition as a child actress, portraying Barbara Cooper Royer on the sitcom '' One Day at a Time'' (1975–1984) for which she won two Golden Globe Award ...
.
References
Further reading
*
{{authority control
1987 songs
1988 singles
Country rock songs
Music videos directed by Andy Morahan
Songs written by Eddie Van Halen
Songs written by Alex Van Halen
Songs written by Michael Anthony (musician)
Songs written by Sammy Hagar
Van Halen songs
Warner Records singles