The first song on the band’s debut album, Van Halen released in 1978. The song opens up with a backward blare of car horns, which Eddie Van Halen made by putting together a bunch of horns, a car battery, and a footswitch which they used to use at clubs.
Van Halen included “Runnin’ With The Devil” on a demo that Gene Simmons produced for them back in 1977. Gene Simmons saw them in a concert which led him to fly the band to New York. Simmons even bought them clothes and set them up for a recording session. However, with all Simmons’ efforts, they didn’t manage to score a record deal but was an experience enough.
It was Gene Simmons’ idea to put the car horns at the start — and he had Van Halen to this on the group’s 1977 “House Of Pain” demo he produced.
“Runnin’ With The Devil,” at one point, was responsible for everything we know about Van Halen; David Lee Roth’s cool squealing; Eddie’s impeccable guitar solo, and Michael Anthony’s memorable backup vocals.
The day (May 6, 1978) the band released the second single from their debut album, it dominated America’s most loved genre at the time, disco.
You can listen to the song below: