Diamond Dave's got a whole new shine, thanks to a forthcoming box set from Rhino. David Lee Roth's The Warner Recordings 1985-1994, coming February 21, will include the four LPs (and one EP) the iconoclastic singer released outside of his concluding tenure as the vocalist for Van Halen. All of the albums have been newly remastered, and will be available at general retailers as a 5CD set. (Rhino's official store will exclusively carry a vinyl version.)

Roth's solo career began four decades ago this year, in the wake of Van Halen's biggest commercial success, the previous year's 1984. Though the late Edward Van Halen's keyboard work (alongside his virtuosic guitar solos) moved VH further afield of their original hard rock style, "Jump," "Panama" and "Hot for Teacher" were massive hits on radio as well as MTV, where Roth and his bandmates were happy to mug for the camera in stylized music videos. Dave kept that over-the-top energy going on debut EP Crazy from the Heat, recorded with the band's producer Ted Templeman: instead of hard rock or New Wave, the mini-album featured entirely covers of '60s pop (The Lovin' Spoonful's Coconut Grove," a Top 5 version of The Beach Boys' "California Girls" - the latter featuring guest backing vocals by Carl Wilson and Christopher Cross), '70s blues (The Edgar Winter Group's "Easy Street") and, perhaps most strangely of all, a take on jazz singer Louis Prima's medley of the pre-World War II standards "Just a Gigolo" and "I Ain't Got Nobody." Thanks to a colorful video that parodied many of MTV's biggest stars, Roth's version was a Top 20 hit, and the EP went platinum.

By the year's end, Roth split from Van Halen, attempting to reclaim the rock style he felt the band was lacking in their latter material. To that end, he assembled a new backing band featuring bassist Billy Sheehan, drummer Gregg Bissonette, and - most pointedly - guitarist Steve Vai, a rising virtuoso seen by many as the heir apparent to Van Halen himself. With Templeman back in the producer's chair, 1986's Eat 'Em and Smile featured blissful, guitar-driven metal (the hit single "Yankee Rose," "Goin' Crazy") as well as a little bit of blues and vocal standards (the standard "Tobacco Road," a take on Frank Sinatra's "That's Life"). Roth and his new band toured arenas in support of the album, and even translated the lyrics into a Spanish-language edition called Sonrisa Salvaje (which is unfortunately not included in this box).

Van Halen released the successful 5150 with vocalist Sammy Hagar months before Eat 'Em and Smile, and titled their next album with Hagar OU812 in 1988, a not-so-subtle dig at the former frontman. But if Roth was offended, it barely showed on his next effort, which beat OU812 in stores by a few months. Skyscraper retained the same line-up of Sheehan, Bissonette and Vai (now promoted to co-producer alongside Roth), with the addition of keyboardist Brett Tuggle; the results yielded Roth's biggest original single, the No. 6 hit "Just Like Paradise." While another high-concept tour ensued, Sheehan would not join his bandmates; in his stead was Gregg's brother Matt Bissonette. (Vai would depart Roth's orbit after the tour completed to temporarily join up with Whitesnake before becoming an in-demand solo performer.)

Undeterred, Roth attempted to rebuild on 1991's hard-edged A Little Ain't Enough. Alongside the Bissonettes, Tuggle and producer Bob Rock (who'd engineered Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet before producing Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood (1989) and Metallica's self-titled album, released later that year), Roth recruited another guitar virtuoso: a 19-year-old speed-metal prodigy named Jason Becker. But the promise of the new sound was beset by a horrible fate: a week after joining the band, Becker was diagnosed with the neurogenerative condition known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. He was able to complete the sessions, but gradually lost the ability to play, walk and speak. (However, he remains a composer, working on computers using a system of language that detects his eye movements.) Whether people had simply gotten tired of Roth or the impending changes in rock tastes brought on by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins caused a shift, A Little Ain't Enough was a relative commercial disappointment.

Fortunes fared even worse on Roth's final album for Warner, the 1994 Reprise release Your Filthy Little Mouth. With a diverse group of session musicians wrangled by superproducer Nile Rodgers (who did not play, himself), the album ran a bizarre gamut of rock, country and jazz that likely stretched itself too thin to earn favor with fans of any one genre. The rest of Roth's '90s were increasingly unusual: a New York Times-bestselling memoir, stints as a Las Vegas lounge singer and a New York City EMT and a brief reunion with Van Halen that virtually crashed and burned in real time on the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards. (Roth would rejoin the band in 2007, which by then featured Edward, his brother Alex on drums, and his son Wolfgang replacing original bassist Michael Anthony. They released A Different Kind of Truth in 2012 and toured in support of the album. Edward Van Halen died in 2020 after a long battle with cancer, and Roth retired from live performances after an aborted Las Vegas residency in 2021.)

The Warner Recordings 1985-1994 hits stores on February 21. Pre-order links to both CD and vinyl versions are below; as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Warner Recordings 1985-1994 (Warner/Rhino, 2025)

5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
5LP: Rhino.com

CD/LP 1: Crazy from the Heat (released as Warner Bros. 25222, 1985)

1. Easy Street
2. Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody
3. California Girls
4. Coconut Grove

CD/LP 2: Eat 'Em and Smile (released as Warner Bros. 25470, 1986)

1. Yankee Rose
2. Shyboy
3. I'm Easy
4. Ladies' Nite In Buffalo?
5. Goin' Crazy!
6. Tobacco Road
7. Elephant Gun
8. Big Trouble
9. Bump and Grind
10. That's Life

CD/LP 3: Skyscraper (released as Warner Bros. 25671, 1988)

1. Knucklebones
2. Just Like Paradise
3. The Bottom Line
4. Skyscraper
5. Damn Good
6. Hot Dog and a Shake
7. Stand Up
8. Hina
9. Perfect Timing
10. Two Fools a Minute

CD/LP 4: A Little Ain't Enough (released as Warner Bros. 26477, 1991)

1. A Lil' Ain't Enough
2. Shoot It
3. Lady Luck
4. Hammerhead Shark
5. Tell the Truth
6. Baby's on Fire
7. 40 Below
8. Sensible Shoes
9. Last Call
10. The Dogtown Shuffle
11. It's Showtime!
12. Drop in the Bucket

CD/LP 5: Your Filthy Little Mouth (released as Reprise 45391, 1994)

1. She's My Machine
2. Everybody's Got the Monkey
3. Big Train
4. Experience
5. A Little Luck
6. Cheatin' Heart Cafe
7. Hey, You Never Know
8. No Big 'Ting
9. You're Breathin' It
10. Your Filthy Little Mouth
11. Land's Edge
12. Night Life
13. Sunburn
14. You're Breathin' It (Urban NYC Mix)