Samuel Roy Hagar, also known as The Red Rocker, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and entrepreneur. Hagar came to prominence in the 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose. He then launched a successful solo career, scoring a hit in 1984 with "I Can't Drive 55". He enjoyed commercial success when he replaced David Lee Roth as the lead singer of Van Halen in 1985, but left in 1996. He returned to the band from 2003 to 2005. On March 12, 2007, Hagar was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen. His musical style primarily consists of hard rock, heavy metal, and glam metal.
Montrose was a California-based hard rock band formed in 1973 and named after guitarist and founder Ronnie Montrose. The band's original lineup featured Montrose and vocalist Sammy Hagar, who later gained greater fame as a solo artist and as a member of Van Halen. Rounding out the original foursome were bassist Bill Church and drummer Denny Carmassi. The group disbanded in early 1977.
Ronald Douglas Montrose was an American rock guitarist, who led the bands Montrose and Gamma. He also performed and did session work with a variety of musicians, including Van Morrison (1971–72), Herbie Hancock (1971), Beaver & Krause (1971), Boz Scaggs (1971), Edgar Winter, Gary Wright (1975), The Beau Brummels (1975), Dan Hartman (1976), Tony Williams (1978), The Neville Brothers (1987), Marc Bonilla and Sammy Hagar (1997). The first Montrose album has often been cited as "America's answer to Led Zeppelin" and Ronnie Montrose was often referred to as one of the most influential guitarists in American hard rock.
Denny Carmassi is an American rock drummer.
William Church is an American bass guitarist, who started out playing bass in a band called Sawbuck in 1969, with Mojo Collins, Starr Donaldson, Ronnie Montrose and Chuck Ruff. As the band was beginning to record their first album, Montrose and Church left Sawbuck to join Van Morrison on his Tupelo Honey album. When Montrose rejoined Ruff to record Edgar Winter Group's smash They Only Come Out at Night, Church remained with Morrison and appeared on the Saint Dominic's Preview LP. When Montrose left Winter to form his own hard rock outfit, Montrose, Church was recruited along with singer Sammy Hagar and drummer Denny Carmassi. Church was replaced on the second Montrose album Paper Money by Alan Fitzgerald.
Gamma was an American band formed by guitarist Ronnie Montrose and singer Davey Pattison in San Francisco, California, United States in 1979. They released four albums: Gamma 1 (1979), Gamma 2 (1980), Gamma 3 (1982) and Gamma 4 (2000). Their biggest hit was 1982's "Right the First Time", which was a minor chart entry in the US, but a top 40 hit in Canada. Some of their other best known songs include "Fight to the Finish" from their first album, and "Meanstreak" and "Voyager" from the second album.
Montrose is the debut album by the American hard rock band Montrose released in 1973 on the Warner Bros. label. It was produced by Ted Templeman. The album marks the recording debut of vocalist Sammy Hagar, who would later achieve international success as a solo artist and member of Van Halen.
Paper Money (1974) is the second album by the American hard rock band Montrose. It was produced by Ted Templeman and is the band's final recording with original vocalist Sammy Hagar. It marks the arrival of new bass player Alan Fitzgerald, replacing original bassist Bill Church.
Gamma 1, released in 1979, is Gamma's debut album. It reached #131 on the Billboard Album charts, totalling seventeen weeks on the survey. "I'm Alive" reached #60 on the Billboard singles charts.
Gamma 2 is Gamma's second album, released in 1980. On this album Ronnie Montrose keeps his streak of not having the same personnel on two albums in a row, changing the line-up once again. Davey Pattison (vocals), Montrose (guitar), and Jim Alcivar (synthesizer) remain from Gamma 1. Glenn Letsch replaces Alan Fitzgerald on bass and old Montrose bandmate Denny Carmassi replaces Skip Gillette on drums.
Musical Chairs is the third studio album by American rock vocalist Sammy Hagar, released in October 1977 by Capitol Records.
Warner Bros. Presents Montrose! is the third album by American hard rock band Montrose, released on Warner Bros. Records in September 1975.
Jump on It is the fourth album by American hard rock band Montrose.
Red Hot! is one of the many Sammy Hagar compilation albums from his Capitol Records era. This one compiling material from his two live albums released for the label, All Night Long and Live 1980. Tracks 1-6 were taken from All Night Long and tracks 7-11 were taken from Live 1980.
All Night Long is Sammy Hagar's first live album. The album was recorded during concerts in San Francisco, San Antonio, San Bernardino, Santa Cruz and Santa Monica.
Live: Hallelujah is a live album by Sammy Hagar and The Waboritas.
Blood Sports is a 1984 album released by the British heavy metal band Avenger. It was reissued in 2002 by Frontline Records.
Open Fire was the first instrumental album from Ronnie Montrose which explored jazz, rock and acoustic concepts in the vein of Blow by Blow by Jeff Beck. Ronnie dropped hints in previous Montrose albums that he was heading in this direction. Songs like "Whaler" and "One And a Half" from Warner Brothers Presents... Montrose! and "Tuft-Sedge" and "Merry-Go-Round" from Jump On It contained various acoustic, synthesizer and string elements that showed Ronnie was looking to branch out from his hard rock persona.
The Best of Gamma is a compilation of music from the first three Gamma albums.
"Winner Takes It All " is a 1987 rock song written by record producer Giorgio Moroder and Thomas Whitlock and recorded by Sammy Hagar. Originally was included in the soundtrack of the Sylvester Stallone movie Over the Top, being the first track and second single from the album, released through CBS Records. The song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and No. 54 on their Hot 100 chart. It appears in Hagar's 2004 compilation album The Essential Red Collection.
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