Consensus #4 · on 58 of 79 lists
#4

Eruption

Van Halen · 1978 · solo by Eddie Van Halen
Everything about this song →
Gear, tickets & merch

Eruption

Van Halen, 1978. Solo by Eddie Van Halen.

A minute and 42 seconds that made two-handed tapping a mainstream technique. Every shred player since starts here.

The whole track is the solo, recorded in essentially a single take on the Frankenstrat, tuned down a half step, into a 1968 Marshall Super Lead with an MXR Phase 90 and Echoplex. It opens with heavy, vibrato-laden phrases and fast pull-off runs, pauses to quote Kreutzer's second étude, then launches into rapid two-handed tapping that turns triads into cascading arpeggios. Tapping existed before, but nobody had made it sound this musical or this exciting, and a generation of players went straight to the bedroom to copy it. It closes on a low harmonic fed through a modified Univox echo. Listen for the change in texture when the tapping starts: the notes suddenly sound like a keyboard running up and down.

Eruption by Van Halen is ranked #4 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by Eddie Van Halen and the song was released in 1978. It appears on 58 lists, placing as high as #1 (TrueFire Blog).

The story of Eruption

Eruption was never meant to be an album track. Eddie Van Halen had been playing a solo guitar showcase in the band's club sets since at least 1975, originally without the tapping that would make it famous. Over the next couple of years it developed into a compact display of everything he could do on the instrument, and it doubled as the warm-up routine he ran through before gigs.

During the sessions for the band's debut album at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, Eddie arrived early one day and started rehearsing the piece ahead of a weekend show at the Whisky a Go Go. Producer Ted Templeman overheard it and asked for it to be put on tape, and engineer Donn Landee captured it. Eddie later recalled making just one pass, and he always maintained there was a mistake near the top end of the performance.

Musically, the piece is a sequence of short episodes, backed briefly by Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony at the start. Its opening borrows from the Cactus song 'Let Me Swim', and one passage quotes Rodolphe Kreutzer's Etude No. 2, a violin study. It ends with torrents of two-handed tapped triads, a classical-style cadence and a low harmonic sent through an echo unit.

Templeman sequenced the instrumental as track two on Van Halen, between 'Runnin' with the Devil' and the band's cover of the Kinks' 'You Really Got Me', into which it segues. Warner Bros. released the album on 10 February 1978, and Eruption later appeared as the B-side of 'Runnin' with the Devil'. The two tracks are still usually played back to back on radio.

The solo

The entire track is the solo. Eddie played his home-built Frankenstrat, tuned down a half step, into a 1968 Marshall Super Lead, with an MXR Phase 90 and an Echoplex in the chain and Sunset Sound's reverb chamber adding space. He recorded it in essentially a single take. The piece opens in A flat with heavy, vibrato-laden phrases and fast pull-off runs, pauses for a quote from Kreutzer's second étude, then launches into its signature section: rapid two-handed tapping, with the right hand hammering notes onto the fretboard to create cascading triad arpeggios. It closes on a twelfth-fret harmonic on the low string fed through a modified Univox echo unit, which produces the descending growl at the end.

Legacy

Eruption brought two-handed tapping into mainstream rock and shaped the sound of 1980s guitar playing; within months, young players everywhere were copying Eddie's striped guitars and technique. Guitar World ranked it the second-greatest guitar solo in 2009, and readers voted it No. 1 in 2013. Rolling Stone and Q also placed it in their all-time lists. Chuck Klosterman called it the best Van Halen song, arguing it is the essence of what fans love about the band. Eddie himself always thought he could have played it better.

Top 10 facts about Eruption

  1. Ted Templeman heard Eddie warming up for a Whisky a Go Go gig and asked for the piece to be recorded.

    Ultimate Classic Rock

  2. Engineer Donn Landee captured the performance during a rehearsal at Sunset Sound.

    Songfacts

  3. Eddie said he made a single pass at it and always heard a mistake near the top end.

    Ultimate Classic Rock

  4. The closing growl came from a cheap Univox echo unit that Eddie had fitted with a different motor.

    Songfacts

  5. Eddie used his Frankenstrat tuned down a half step, a 1968 Marshall Super Lead, an MXR Phase 90 and an Echoplex.

    Wikipedia

  6. One section quotes Rodolphe Kreutzer's Etude No. 2, and the opening draws on Cactus's 'Let Me Swim'.

    Wikipedia

  7. Eddie compared tapping to having a sixth finger on his fretting hand.

    Ultimate Classic Rock

  8. Guitar World readers voted it the greatest guitar solo of all time in 2013.

    Songfacts

  9. The nylon-string instrumental 'Spanish Fly' on Van Halen II is a companion piece, also suggested by Templeman.

    Wikipedia

  10. A 2013 Tokyo Dome performance included on the band's 2015 live album stretches the piece to over eight minutes.

    Wikipedia

Live versions

  • Live Without a Net (New Haven) (1986) Concert video from 27 August 1986 folding Eruption into an extended guitar solo with 'Cathedral' and 'Spanish Fly'.
  • Live: Right Here, Right Now (Fresno) (1992) Portions of Eruption appear inside the 11-minute '316' solo spot.
  • Tokyo Dome Live in Concert (2013) Recorded 21 June 2013 and released in 2015; an 8:08 version.

Notable covers

  • Tina S. Guitarist who, at 14, posted a YouTube cover that drew well over a million views.
  • Robb Flynn (Machine Head) (2020) Played it as a tribute the day Eddie Van Halen died.
  • Unlucky Morpheus (Jill) (2021) Violin arrangement on their instrumental covers album Loud Playing Workshop.

In our lists

Sources

What guitar was used on the Eruption solo?

A frankenstrat through a Marshall Super Lead amp, with MXR Phase 90, according to widely reported accounts.

Where does Eruption rank among the greatest guitar solos?

#4 in the GreatestSolos consensus of 79 published lists; it appears on 58 of them.

Who played Eruption?

Eddie Van Halen, with brief backing from Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony at the opening.

What guitar did Eddie Van Halen use on Eruption?

His Frankenstrat, tuned down a half step, through a 1968 Marshall Super Lead with an MXR Phase 90 and Echoplex.

Was Eruption recorded in one take?

Eddie said he made one pass and it went on the record, despite a mistake he always heard.

What technique is used in Eruption?

Its best-known section uses two-handed tapping, which the track popularised in rock.

How long is Eruption?

The studio version lasts 1:42.