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Finish What Ya Started

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"Finish What Ya Started"
Single by Van Halen
from the album OU812
B-side"Sucker in a 3 Piece"
ReleasedSeptember 1988
Recorded1987–1988
Studio5150 Studios, Studio City, California
Genre
Length4:20
LabelWarner Bros.
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Van Halen singles chronology
"When It's Love"
(1988) 		"Finish What Ya Started"
(1988) 		"Feels So Good"
(1989)

"Finish What Ya Started" is a song by Van Halen taken from their 1988 album OU812.

Background

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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 sex without orgasm, summed up by Hagar as "blue balls".[4][page needed][5] In the song, Eddie 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 Hagar playing a rhythm guitar part, which he played on a Gibson acoustic.[citation needed]

Music video

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The official music video for the song was directed by Andy Morahan.[6] 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 midway through the outro, unlike the fade out on the OU812 version.

Charts

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Chart (1988–89) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100[7] 13
US Billboard Mainstream Rock[8] 2

Reception

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Cash Box called it "a remarkable single...that owes more to T-Rex and Creedence than to a Whitesnake."[9]

In 1988, the song peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Billboard rock chart.

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The song was later used as theme music for the short-lived 1990 sitcom Sydney, which starred Eddie Van Halen's then-wife, Valerie Bertinelli.

References

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  1. ^ "Eddie Van Halen's Influence, Genius Changed Music and the Possibilities of Art". Hollywood in Toto. 2020-10-07. Retrieved 2021-02-10. ...to country ("Finish What Ya Started")
  2. ^ Fricke, David (1988-06-30). "OU812". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  3. ^ Brown, Morgan (2023). On Track ... Van Halen: Every Album, Every Song. England: Sonic Bond Publishing. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-78952-256-3.
  4. ^ Christe, Ian (2009). Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga. Wiley. ISBN 9780470536186.
  5. ^ Dodds, Kevin (12 October 2011). Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography. iUniverse. p. 146. ISBN 9781462054817.
  6. ^ Garcia, Alex S. "Van Halen - 'Finish what ya started'". Music Video DataBase. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  7. ^ "Van Halen". Billboard.
  8. ^ "Van Halen: Mainstream Rock Airplay". Billboard.
  9. ^ "Single Releases" (PDF). Cash Box. October 1, 1988. p. 12. Retrieved 2022-12-22.

Further reading

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