Finish What Ya Started

"Finish What Ya Started"
Single by Van Halen
from the album OU812
B-side	"Sucker in a 3 Piece"
Released	September 1988
Recorded	5150 Studios, Hollywood, California, 1987-1988
Genre	Hard rock
Length	04:20
Label	Warner Bros.
Writer(s)	Eddie Van Halen Alex Van Halen Michael Anthony Sammy Hagar

"Finish What Ya Started" is a song by Van Halen taken from their 1988 album OU812. Despite the album being seemingly complete, Eddie Van Halen came up with the riff at 2 in the morning and went down to his then-neighbor Sammy Hagar to show it. Hagar let Eddie in, and the two played guitars in his balcony until they had a completed song. Once Eddie left, Hagar decided to write the lyrics despite being late at night. The theme wound up being unfulfilled sex, summed up by Hagar as "blue balls.^[1][2] In the song, Eddie Van Halen recorded his guitar part on a Fender Stratocaster plugged direct into the studio mixing console. The song is one of only two Van Halen tracks featuring Sammy Hagar playing a rhythm guitar part, which he played on a Gibson acoustic.

The official music video for the song was directed by Andy Morahan.^[3] It features the band playing against a plain white background with quick cuts to women dancing. The version of the song on their 2004 compilation The Best of Both Worlds stops mid-way through the outro, unlike the fade out on the OU812 version.

In 1989, the song peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Billboard rock chart.

References