Replay: Montrose, Montrose, 1973

Sammy Hagar, pallid successor to David Lee Roth in Van Halen and unabashed huckster for his own brand of tequila, started his career on a more promising note: wailing for one of the rockingest albums of the 1970s. And one of the most unheralded.

Montrose, named for guitarist and frontman Ronnie Montrose, released its self-titled debut in 1973. The eight tracks, produced by future Van Halen studio guru Ted Templeman, are a near-perfect package of bluesy, swaggering bar boogie, featuring Hagar's roaring vocals and Montrose's crisp power chords. The band's powerful, uncluttered rhythms created the template, for good or ill, for the ascendance of stadium rock and pop metal in the late '70s and early '80s.

The album, unjustly ignored in rock history annals, features two tracks still played occasionally on classic rock radio. "Bad Motor Scooter" is a good-time scorcher highlighted by Ronnie Montrose's convincing six-string imitation of a motorcycle roaring down the highway. Even tastier is "Rock Candy," which delivers on two levels: It's a raunchy air guitar party, echoing the textures of Jimi Hendrix, and it relishes the wonderfully vivid chorus: "You're rock candy, baby/ Hot, sweet and sticky." The album has other delights as well, including the anthemic "Rock the Nation," the raucously weird "Space Station #5" and the slow rollick "Make It Last."

Sadly, Montrose didn't have much stamina. Its second album, Paper Money, was just okay, and its third and fourth, both minus Hagar, were not good. Hagar went on to a successful solo career (Standing Hampton, "I Can't Drive 55"), followed by a financially, if not artistically, successful run with Van Halen. Ronnie Montrose, who got his start playing behind Van Morrison, Boz Skaggs and Edgar Winter ("Frankenstein," "Free Ride"), did not fare as well, forming the undistinguished Gamma in the late '70s and recording numerous unheard solo albums. According to his website, he's still plucking away, but you know how that goes.

As often happens in the rock 'n' roll world, Sammy Hagar's finest moment came very early in his career. Montrose, yes; Waboritas, no.--Geoff Schumacher