"She's the Woman" is the second song and single from the album, ''

A Different Kind of Truth ''A Different Kind of Truth'' is the twelfth and final studio album by American rock band Van Halen. Released on February 7, 2012, by Interscope Records, this is Van Halen's only studio album on Interscope and its first full-length album of stu ...

'', from American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band

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 ...

. The single was released online and to radio stations February 28, 2012. This is the band’s last official single as a result of guitarist

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...

's death in October 2020.

History

The song dates back to a demo written in 1976. A version of it was on the demo produced by

Gene Simmons Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; he, חיים ויץ, ; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul ...

that landed Van Halen a record deal with

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. In 2009, bassist

Wolfgang Van Halen Wolfgang William Van Halen (, born March 16, 1991) is an American musician. The son of guitarist Eddie Van Halen, he performed alongside his father as the bassist for the rock band Van Halen from 2006 to 2020. He also performed with the heavy ...

, son of guitarist

, picked up the tapes for the song from the

5150 Studios 5150 Studios is Eddie Van Halen's recording studio in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The studio is located at 3371 Coldwater Canyon and was built so that Eddie Van Halen could have more control over the recording proce ...

archives looking for tracks to record with his father and his uncle, drummer

Alex Van Halen Alexander Arthur Van Halen (; born May 8, 1953) is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the Rock music, rock band Van Halen. The band was formed in 1972 by Alex Van Halen, his younger brother Eddie Van Halen, Eddie, ...

. A demo was done in August 2009, and some time later Eddie sent

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

files of "She's the Woman", “Bullethead” and “Let’s Get Rockin’” — later retitled “Outta Space" — to singer

David Lee Roth David Lee Roth (born October 10, 1954) is an American rock singer. Best known for his wild, energetic stage persona, he was the original lead vocalist of the hard rock band Van Halen across three stints, from 1974 to 1985, in 1996 and again fro ...

, who enjoyed the tracks and decided to join their project of a new Van Halen record. The song was one of six new songs in the 2012 album ''

'' that originated from older material, making it one of the more prototypical Van Halen songs on the album. As the original

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular m ...

ended up becoming the breakdown in 1981's “ Mean Street", Wolfgang came up with a new breakdown "that had these crazy chord changes", leading Eddie to carefully plan out a new solo, the first time he had done so since "

Runnin' with the Devil "Runnin' with the Devil" is a song by the American hard rock band Van Halen. Released as the second single from the band's 1978 eponymous debut album. The song lyrics were inspired by the funk band Ohio Players 1974 song "Runnin' from the Devil ...

". Roth re-wrote the verse lyrics but kept the title and chorus the same.

Release

Released as a single on February 28, 2012, through Interscope Records, it peaked at No. 31 on the ''Billboard'' Rock Songs chart. A promotional vinyl

7-inch single In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...

was serviced to 83 indie stores to be given with purchases of ''A Different Kind of Truth''. The B-side is an interview, "Brown M&M's", about the band's infamous contract rider requesting a bowl with

M&M's M&M's (stylized as m&m's) are multi-colored button-shaped chocolates, each of which has the letter "m" printed in lower case in white on one side, consisting of a candy shell surrounding a filling which varies depending upon the variety of M&M ...

, none of which could be brown. The music video was released on Van Halen's official website on April 13, 2012.

Personnel

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, backing vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

Van Halen songs 2012 singles Interscope Records singles Songs written by Eddie Van Halen Songs written by David Lee Roth Songs written by Alex Van Halen Song recordings produced by John Shanks 2012 songs {{2010s-rock-song-stub