Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen belongs in a rarefied group of musicians who changed the very notion of the possibilities of their chosen instrument. In Van Halen's case, he was a guitarist of superlative imagination and skill, innovating and introducing a number of techniques that would soon become part of the arsenal of many guitarists, including finger-tapping, hammer-ons, and dive bombs on a whammy bar. All of these could be heard on the self-titled 1978 debut by his namesake band, Van Halen, but the key to his group's success is that they walked the fine line separating heavy metal and p...