I was wondering when Marty was Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan what music did he play? Was it from an existing song? Did some famous band perform it? Thanks.
Van Halen, I think. Sounded like them.
The tape Marty uses is actually labeled “Van Halen”, but it’s not from the band. According to IMDb:
cool thanks
Heh, ignorance fought. I had always thought it was “Eruption”, a track that I was aware of and had heard prior to seeing Back to the Future but not a track that I was really familiar enough with to know out of context (apparently!).
I’ve no doubt now that were I to cue up this scene from the movie and also cue up Van Halen’s “Eruption”, I’d find it quite clear that they’re different. Surely any major Van Halen fan would be banging his head against his desk upon reading my mistake.
It’s been years since I saw the movie, but I remember that the tape actually said “EDWARD VAN HALEN,” rather than just “Van Halen.”
I didn’t recognize the actual music, though. Just Ed gives a good explanation for that. Apparently, it wasn’t a piece that had appeared on any of their previous albums.
At the time, I thought that maybe the tape was supposed to be of Marty himself playing some tricky Van Halen solo.
Featured Lea Thompson as what? All you hear is like 15 of guitar solo.
It was written for a movie that featured Lea Thompson. Unless your whooshing me in which case, good job.
Awesomely appropriate username/post combo!
Yep, you’re right, the tape does actually say “Edward Van Halen”; I hadn’t caught that.
Hadn’t even noticed that myself! 
Thanks! The snippet in Back to the Future is so brief that I actually don’t feel so silly for mixing it up with “Eruption”- that’s speaking as only a passive VH fan. Not a mistake a more devoted fan should make, but at my lower level of fandom I feel no shame.