"Humans Being" is a song recorded and contributed by American

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene, Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances and the virtuosity of their guit ...

for the 1996

disaster film A disaster film or disaster movie is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters may include natural disasters, accidents, offensive (military), military/terrorism, terrorist att ...

Twister Twister most commonly refers to a tornado. Twister or Twisters may also refer to: Aviation * Pipistrel Twister, a Slovenian ultralight trike * Silence Twister, a German homebuilt aircraft design * Wings of Change Twister, an Austrian paragli ...

''. The song marks the last recording to feature vocalist

Sammy Hagar Sam Roy Hagar (born October 13, 1947), also known as the Red Rocker, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose before launching a ...

before his departure from the band in June 1996. "Humans Being" was send to radio in the United States on April 23, 1996, peaking atop the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart published by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" ...

chart for two weeks later that year. In Japan, the single was released on CD in July 1996.

Background

"Humans Being" was included on both the ''Twister'' soundtrack – along with an instrumental by Eddie and Alex, "Respect the Wind" – and the band's '' Best Of – Volume I'' compilation, although the version used in the video for the soundtrack release is an edit with 3:28 of the 5:10 length of the album version, removing several solo sections, a bridge, and shortening the ending. The band played it live during the

III Tour The III Tour was a concert tour by American hard rock band Van Halen, in support of their eleventh studio album, '' Van Halen III''. It is the only concert tour to feature vocalist Gary Cherone. Background Despite positive critical reviews, the ...

and the Summer Tour 2004.

Composition

In January 1996, as the band rested following the end of The Balance "Ambulance" Tour in November 1995, manager

Ray Danniels Ray Danniels is a Canadian music executive, record producer, and talent manager. He's the founder of SRO (Standing Room Only) Management group, as well as independent record labels Moon Records and Anthem Records. He first rose to prominence as ...

suggested to

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex V ...

and his brother

Alex Alex is a given name. Similar names are Alexander, Alexandra, Alexey or Alexis. People Multiple * Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Cook (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Forsyth (disambiguation), multiple people * Al ...

to write songs for the movie, ''Twister''. Singer

was reluctant to work on the tracks as his pregnant wife Kari was expected to deliver their child in April, and he felt the Van Halens should fix their medical ailments – Eddie was walking around with a cane on painkillers because of a hip injury caused by

avascular necrosis Avascular necrosis (AVN), also called osteonecrosis or bone infarction, is death of bone tissue due to interruption of the blood supply. Early on, there may be no symptoms. Gradually joint pain may develop, which may limit the person's abilit ...

, and Alex had a

neck brace A cervical collar, also known as a neck brace, is a medical device used to support and immobilize a person's neck. It is also applied by emergency personnel to those who have had traumatic head or neck injuries, although they should not be rou ...

on due to a vertebra problem stemming from various injuries over the years. Eventually the singer relented as Danniels talked about the financial benefits of the songs.""Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"
David Huff, ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists and fans of guitar-based music and trends. The magazine has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original a ...

'' (April 1997) "Humans Being", which was written with Alex as Sammy wrote a ballad with Eddie, "Between Us Two", was originally named by the singer as "The Silent Extreme" but Alex eventually gave it the new title. The song's lyrics proved a major source of contention. Alex called the film's director,

Jan De Bont Jan de Bont (; born 22 October 1943) is a Dutch former cinematographer, film director, and film producer. He is best known for directing the action films ''Speed (1994 film), Speed'' (1994) and ''Twister (1996 film), Twister'' (1996). As a direct ...

, to ask him how closely he wanted the lyrics to be related to the movie's context, to which De Bont replied "Oh, please don't write about

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

es. I don't want this to be a narrative for the movie." Hagar obliged, and then asked De Bont for some footage of ''Twister''. Considering that film dealt with "the infatuation people have with fear and how it can suck you in", he decided to write lyrics about how "sometimes you're afraid to fall in love with a chick, but she sucks you in anyway." De Bont and Budd Carr also sent Hagar a folder with terms used by

storm chasers Storm chaser or stormchaser may refer to: Weather * Storm chasing, the pursuit of any severe weather condition * Storm chaser, colloquial term referring to scammers who enter areas recently afflicted by disasters offering false or shoddy servi ...

as the singer felt he could add lyrics with terms such as "suck zone". The brothers still disliked Hagar's first lyrics ("Sky turning black/knuckles turning white/headed for the suck zone"), and he had to come up with new ones. Hagar wanted to record his vocals from

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, where he and his wife had arranged for a natural delivery of the baby. The band refused, wanting him to work with them at Eddie's

5150 Studios 5150 Studios is Wolfgang Van Halen's recording studio in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles. The studio was built by his late father Eddie Van Halen and is located at 3371 Coldwater Canyon. It was built so Eddie Van Halen could have ...

in Los Angeles. After three trips to California, Hagar eventually decided to move with his wife back to his San Francisco home to keep her near. After the first recordings of both songs, Hagar was about to leave for Hawaii when Eddie announced that they wanted to ditch "Between Us Two" and instead extend "Humans Being". Hagar wrote two verses with producer

Bruce Fairbairn Bruce Earl Fairbairn (December 30, 1949 – May 17, 1999) was a Canadian record producer. He was active as a producer from 1976 to 1999, and is considered one of the best of his era. His most successful productions are '' Slippery When Wet'' ...

and recorded them in about an hour and a half before departing for his flight. When a second track ended up being required, attempts to bring Sammy back and rework "Between Us Two" were unsuccessful, so Alex and Eddie instead recorded an instrumental titled "Respect the Wind". The process of recording for the movie ended up being the final straw to Sammy's first tenure with Van Halen, as his and Eddie's continued disagreements reached the breaking point.

Reception

'' praised the "tasty riffs and vocal acrobatics" of the song, but

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

described it as "one of Van Halen's worst tracks", panning its inclusion on ''Best of Volume I''. Chuck Klosterman of

Vulture.com ''Vulture'' is an American entertainment news website. It is the standalone pop culture section of ''New York'' magazine. Its tagline is "Devouring Culture". History ''Vulture'' debuted in April 2007 as an entertainment blog on nymag.com, the w ...

ranked it the 15th-best Van Halen song. The song reached number one on the US ''Billboard''

chart for two weeks, becoming the band's 11th chart-topper. It won a 1996

Metal Edge ''Metal Edge'' was a magazine covering heavy metal music published by Zenbu Media. The magazine was founded in the summer of 1985, during the height of glam metal's success. While its sister publication, ''Metal Maniacs'' focused more on extreme ...

Readers' Choice Award for "Best Song from a Movie Soundtrack."Metal Edge, June 1997

Personnel

–

guitars The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

Alex Van Halen Alexander Arthur Van Halen ( , ; born May 8, 1953) is an American musician who was the drummer and a co-founder of the rock band Van Halen, which was formed in 1972 by Van Halen and his younger brother Eddie Van Halen, Eddie under the name "Ma ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

* Michael Anthony –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, backing vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 1996 singles 1996 songs Song recordings produced by Bruce Fairbairn Songs written by Alex Van Halen Songs written by Eddie Van Halen Songs written by Michael Anthony (musician) Songs written by Sammy Hagar Songs written for films Van Halen songs Warner Records singles