Not sure if this poll has been done before. My Google-Fu couldn’t find a previous poll thread on the topic.
Figured I’d throw it open to the floor.
Please note that there is no option for Gary Cherone, as you are objectively wrong if you’re looking for that option. 
Sammy is a better lead singer, David is the better lead singer of Van Halen, if that makes any sense.
I like Dave-era best, but Sammy’s the better singer. Watch live performances - Dave can’t be assed to actually sing half the time. Talk-sings through passages, gives up on lines. . .I think the years of smoking has ruined his ability to run around and sing at the same time. Or maybe he just won’t let a song get in the way of being a front man. Damn shame - love his voice and body of work.
How amazing that Van Halen had two great singers that clicked with them, and they had two great eras of music. I remember nearly having a heart attack when Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot quit/was fired right around the time it was known VH was looking for another singer. Thought we were heading for a disaster there.
This is a strange situation for me. I can’t choose between them.
It’s strange because normally I am VERY black and white on stuff. I love it or hate it.
I should totally be that guy who won’t even admit Eddie Van Halen made any music after Dave left.
But I love both eras.
I only listen to the DLR Van Halen songs. Just like I only listen to Bon Scott AC/DC songs.
Master frontmen with delightfully raunchy senses of humor.
From what I’ve heard I’m going to be in the minority, but as only a casual listener of VH (wouldn’t know any song that wasn’t in heavy rotation on MTV or on the radio), I prefer David Lee Roth.
I think Hot For Teacher was the first song I heard and always liked it. IIRC Jump was on MTV a lot at the time as well…and hearing California Girls right as I’m starting to get into the Beach Boys.
While I’m sure I know some, I couldn’t name any Sammy Hagar songs off the top of my head. I think, at least in my head and possibly wrong, VH with David was more fun. Where as with Sammy it was like when Chicago found the 80’s (and a new singer).
…Wait, I do remember seeing Right Now on MTV a lot.
Sammy for me, it’s not even close. DLR’s “singing” was something I had to endure to hear a band and songs I really liked. When Sammy joined, they finally had a singer who was worthy of the band.
One thing I liked about Roth: “Have you seen Junior’s grades?” is one of the best-delivered lines in rock.
I’m surprised to see the results so skewed towards Diamond Dave. It feels to me like there’s been some reappraisal of Sammy’s run since the days when even the DJs playing the songs would disdainfully refer to “Van Hagar”.
I’m a Sammy fan myself, as I’m a sucker for the kind of power ballads the band excelled in while he was fronting the group.
Loved Dave when I was younger, Sammy was ok. Then the two of them went on tour together, and I was blown away by Sammy and was left utterly underwhelmed by Dave.
So if you’d have asked me this question 20 years ago, I’d have said Dave. Now I’m a Sammy guy.
Sammy David Jr.
DLR, but probably mostly because I don’t like Hagar-era Halen much.
Couldn’t have said this better myself. Another vote for Dave.
It helps Dave’s case that all my local radio stations seem to play a lot more of the Dave-era songs, but the only one they seem to remember from the Sammy era is “Why Can’t This Be Love” (probably my least favorite track from either era).
It makes perfect sense.
Van Halen was a different band with Hagar. Still a great band, but without so much utter badassness that it had with Roth.
Is it true that since Dave returned, Van Halen won’t play any Hagar-era songs in concert?
Well then you’re missing out on a whole bunch of awesome AC/DC songs; you should compensate by listening to Airbourne.
With the other band it’s easy tho since one band is Van Halen and the other is Van Hagar. Van Halen totally fucking rocks; Van Hagar not so much.
Total sense. If Van Halen were James Bond, Sammy Hagar would be Roger Moore.
I know my Airbourne 
And I check out Brian Johnson AC/DC. But neither of those have the wry humor and fun wordplay that Bon brought to his lyrics.
There was a group out of New Orleans called Supagroup that were the closest I’ve heard.
Supagroup, Bastard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQPxuQG-QXU
Supagroup, Ready to Go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2tTat2LduU This is Big Dumb Rock at it’s biggest and dumbest. I listen with maximum volume.
Back to the OP - I pause for a second and consider “Van Halen” and “Power Ballad” in the same sentence and just shake my head. It is fine music, but it isn’t what made Van Halen what they are.
For the win.
This. But it’s hard to separate the quality of the singing (Samuel wins by a mile) and the showmanship (love Davy’s sense of “humor”).
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Whoa, I just realized something:
Man, isn’t it great to be living in the future?
See, when I was a kid, you listened to whatever WLS or WCFL were playing at that moment, on a crappy car stere-- no, mono radio. Unless it was some special oldies night, you listened to music from one era, your own.
But now, we can drive or walk around listening to music from any decade.
(I’ve got early ska on my earbuds right now as I paint the house. But after some ska/dub/reggae, next up is current electro-stuff.)
We can rock out to Van Halen AND Van Hagar… without having to choose!
Not to mention, through the miracle of YouTube, we can listen to Eddie’s random guitar noodlings, and Dave’s bluegrass version of Jump… once (okay, heard it, liked it, laughed, not gonna do it again).
True, but hardly unusual. It’s the same as Ian Gillan not playing any Coverdale-era songs, or Ozzy not singing any Dio-era songs.