Women and Children First is first on Lizzy Hale’s list of Van Halen albums, and she doesn’t need to think twice about it.
“[It’s] the best Van Halen record, period,” the Halestorm lead singer recently told Guitar Player, who asked her to come up with the 10 records that changed her life. “I love all their records, but this one is dangerous and vicious. It’s as if the band said, ‘We’re going in the studio and doing our thing, whether you like it or not. We really don’t care.’
“There’s this element of ‘this is kind of wrong’ that I find so alluring,” she continued. “It’s dirty and weird. That opening to ‘Everybody Wants Some’ is chilling. ‘Romeo Delight’ is another one that blows me away. What a blitzing song! Like everything else on the record, it dances on the line of fun and evil. I’m really surprised that more people don’t cite this record as being one of Van Halen’s finest moments. My parents’ song is ‘Panama,’ if you can wrap your head around that. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but I gotta go with the cuts on Women and Children First. It sounds like something aliens would have recorded.”